Argentinos Juniors (1976 to 1981)
The head coach of the professional team, Juan Carlos Montes, was not unaware of the prodigy from his own youth department and called Maradona into the professional squad. On 20 October 1976, ten days before his 16th birthday, Maradona made his Primera División debut for Argentinos Juniors when he came on as a second-half substitute in a home game against Club Atlético Talleres (0-1). This made him the youngest player in Argentina's first division at the time. The brave performance convinced Montes to give him a permanent place in the professional side despite his youthful age. Maradona scored his first two goals on 14 November 1976 against San Lorenzo Mar del Plata, when he scored 4-2 and 5-2. During the course of the 1977 Metropolitano, "El Pibe" emerged as a crucial player for the Argentinos and just four months after his debut, a nomination for the senior national team followed. Within a very short time, Maradona had become a celebrated public favourite and his rapid rise to become the country's best player began. The Argentine public pounced on the curly-headed player with the number 10 on his back and made comparisons with the Brazilian footballer extraordinaire Pelé.
Maradona played a total of four and a half years for the Argentinos, during which he scored 116 league goals and became top scorer five times in a row (Metropolitano 1978: 22 goals; Metropolitano 1979: 18 goals; Nacional 1979: 12 goals; Metropolitano 1980: 25 goals and Nacional 1980: 17 goals). Only 1.65 metres tall, the dribbling artist appeared all over the pitch, was both playmaker and goal scorer. His compact physique, feints and surprising changes of pace presented opponents with seemingly insurmountable problems. Even as a young player, Maradona had the ability to single-handedly decide a game with his dynamism and tricky style of play. Argentinos Juniors were one of the smaller clubs in Buenos Aires, but thanks to Maradona's individual class they were able to develop into a team that played for places in the top third of the table. After finishing fifth in 1978, Argentinos were runners-up in the Metropolitano in 1980 under coach Miguel Ángel López, but the club's ability was not enough to win titles. Although Argentinos had signed an advertising deal with the airline Austral, which thus became the first shirt sponsor of Argentine club football, Maradona's enormous salary did not allow them to further improve the squad through player purchases and guarantee long-term financial stability. From a sporting perspective, too, Maradona, who had won Argentina's and South America's Footballer of the Year awards in 1979 and 1980 respectively, had outstripped his club, eventually making the sale of the star player inevitable.
Maradona was by now a dollar millionaire, represented by his childhood friend Jorge Cyterszpiler, whom he had made his manager in 1977. Cyterszpiler took advantage of his client's ever-growing popularity and signed lucrative sponsorship deals with Puma, Coca-Cola and Agfa. For better marketing, he founded the company "Diego Armando Maradona Producciones S.A." and had it entered in the Liechtenstein business register in 1979. With his family, Maradona moved into an estate in the prominent Villa Devoto district and acquired a country house in Moreno with an adjoining training ground.
Boca Juniors (1981/82)
After receiving a number of individual awards, Maradona received offers from top European clubs. But on the instructions of the military junta, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) banned him from transferring abroad. Argentina's record champions River Plate were prepared to make him their top earner alongside national goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol, but Maradona did not want to play for the upper-class club and turned them down. Instead, he accepted the offer of Boca Juniors, whose supporters traditionally belong to the country's poorer classes. As his father was also an ardent Boca fan, and because of his own heritage, the move was a matter of the heart for Maradona. Despite being one of the most popular and successful clubs in the country, Boca Juniors had to go to their financial pain barrier to make the transfer happen. The deal with Argentinos Juniors for the 16-month loan included the transfer of six additional squad players, in addition to a fee of four million US dollars. Maradona himself received a handout of $600,000, most of which was in real estate, and a monthly salary of $60,000. He signed the negotiated contract with media attention on 20 February 1981, and in the friendly match that followed, Maradona played a half for each of his old and new clubs.
Maradona made his debut for Boca Juniors on 22 February 1981, scoring a brace in a 4-1 win over CA Talleres. With no time to settle in, Maradona integrated himself into the Xeneizes' team structure, which featured other top players in Hugo Gatti, Roberto Mouzo, Miguel Brindisi, Vicente Pernía, Marcelo Trobbiani and Oscar Ruggeri. The 20-year-old took the game by the scruff of the neck and became the team's undisputed conductor. However, the newcomer's relationship with coach Silvio Marzolini was strained as the latter did not give his star the special treatment he was accustomed to. In his first Superclásico against arch-rivals River Plate in front of a home crowd, Maradona set up the opening goal with a solo run. He eventually made it 3-0 when he took a cross into the box, skipped past national goalkeeper Fillol and fooled defender Alberto Tarantini, who had rushed back to the goal line, before slotting the ball home. The victory over the hated Millonarios took Maradona's cult following to new heights and the influential Barra Bravas expected their side to win the championship again after five years. Boca Juniors withstood the pressure and settled the title battle with Ferro Carril Oeste on the final day of the Metropolitano. A 1-1 draw with Racing Club saw them become Argentine champions at La Bombonera and, with 17 goals for the season, Maradona played a major part in their first national title.
In the subsequent Torneo Nacional, Maradona scored eleven goals in twelve games, but Boca Juniors were surprisingly beaten by CA Vélez Sarsfield in the quarter-finals. Maradona missed the second leg (a 3-1 defeat) due to a red card suspension. In 1981, he won Argentina's Footballer of the Year award for the third year in a row.
Boca Juniors were forced to play financially lucrative friendlies, as without the extra income they would not have been able to pay their players' salaries. The matches, which were played all over the world, often involved exhausting travel and shortened recovery periods. In January 1982, the team had to play eight games in 21 days. Maradona's last game for Boca was against River Plate in the Copa de Oro summer tournament on 6 February 1982. He then left for a four-month training camp with the national team in preparation for the 1982 World Cup.
FC Barcelona (1982 until 1984)
After the 1982 World Cup, Maradona moved to FC Barcelona in Spain for the then record sum of 7.3 million US dollars. For the club's ambitious president Josep Lluís Núñez, signing the world's most expensive footballer was a matter of prestige and was intended to demonstrate economic potency against rivals Real Madrid. A crowd of 50,000 turned up at the Camp Nou for the player's introduction, but apart from a few highlights, Maradona failed to live up to the lofty expectations. He made his debut on 3 August 1982 in a pre-season friendly against SV Meppen.
FC Barcelona's coach was Udo Lattek, who trained extensively in strength and endurance, which led to ongoing arguments with Maradona, who disliked the physically tough sessions. Despite the strained relationship with his coach, Maradona showed appealing performances. His tricky style of play made the Catalan star ensemble more unpredictable and formed a match-winning duo with Bernd Schuster. By December 1982, he had scored six goals in 13 league games and Barça had, as expected, established themselves in the top flight of the PrimeraDivisión. In the 2nd round of the European Cup Winners' Cup, Red Star Belgrade were beaten 4-2 away from home. The in-form Maradona wowed the Belgrade crowd with a lobbed goal from the edge of the area and received a standing ovation.
In December 1982, however, Maradona contracted hepatitis and had to sit out for three months. He retreated to his villa in the suburb of Pedralbes and fought his loneliness by bringing friends from his native Argentina to Barcelona. This so-called "Maradona clan" was to accompany him throughout the rest of his career. At this time, the first rumours about his wild private life were circulating in the bourgeois city: for example, his hepatitis illness was said to have actually been a venereal disease. While he denied this throughout his life, he later admitted to having taken cocaine for the first time in Barcelona. Looking back, he described the long convalescence as "the most unhappy phase of my career."
After an early exit from the European Cup, Lattek was sacked in March 1983 and replaced by César Luis Menotti, who was seen as an advocate of free, creative and attacking football. With the signing of his compatriot, Maradona declared himself recovered, showed a new taste for football and became his side's top scorer with eleven goals in the season. But even with the new coach, Barça missed out on the championship at the end of the 1982/83 season, finishing fourth in the table. However, a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in the final meant that the club did at least win the cup. Barcelona also beat Real Madrid in two finals in the first edition of the short-lived League Cup at the end of June 1983, with Maradona scoring in both matches. It was his goal in the first leg, in particular, that caused a stir, as he raced towards goal alone, skipped past the goalkeeper and then left his opposite number Juan José to straddle him before slotting the ball in. It was the first time the crowd at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu had applauded an opposition player.
Having only played 20 league games the previous year due to illness, Maradona started the 1983/84 season with great ambition. At the end of September 1983, FC Barcelona hosted reigning champions Athletic Bilbao on matchday 4. The duel between the football aesthetes from Catalonia and the physical Basques was considered a clash of opposing football philosophies in the early 1980s. With the score at 2-0, Maradona was brutally fouled from behind by defender Andoni Goikoetxea in the 58th minute with a tackle and suffered the most serious injury of his career: a torn lateral ligament and a compound ankle fracture that had to be fixed by surgery. Immediately after the game, coach Menotti was outraged by the foul ("I guess someone has to die before anything changes") and called Goikoetxea an "anti-footballer", while the press nicknamed him the "Butcher of Bilbao". Because the referee failed to detect any intent, the sports court subsequently sentenced the Basque defender to an 18-game ban, which was later reduced to six. Maradona returned to his family in Buenos Aires to recover and also missed the majority of his second season with FC Barcelona. Under the supervision of sports physician Ruben Darío Oliva, whom he had specially brought from Milan, he fought his way back with discipline and training diligence. After 106 days out with injury, he made his comeback on 8 January 1984 against Sevilla FC, scoring twice in a 3-1 win. By the end of the season, Maradona had played a total of 16 league games, scoring eleven goals. Third in the table, Barça missed out on the championship again by one point, but they did reach the Copa del Rey final again, which they lost 1-0 to Athletic Bilbao, of all teams, on 5 May 1984. After being repeatedly harshly attacked and provoked during the match, Maradona caused an éclat after the final whistle by attacking several opponents and support staff with uncontrolled kicks. With Spain's King Juan Carlos I in the VIP stand, a wild mass brawl developed between the teams. Maradona was identified as one of the main culprits and, accompanied by Cyterszpiler, was forced to apologise to the king in an audience.
The 'prodigy' from the South American slum never really warmed to Barcelona, and after the events of the cup final, the pain threshold was reached for the club's unnerved management. In the months before, Maradona had already clashed regularly with president Núñez over a number of escapades - excursions into nightlife, reports of his dealings with prostitutes and fisticuffs with autograph collectors. He was prepared to put Maradona on the transfer list because of the expected three-month ban and the increasingly uncomfortable press. Maradona himself was not averse to a change of club. This was linked to loss-making businesses and the inability of his friend and manager Cyterszpiler to get a grip on Maradona's expenses in this dual role, resulting in Maradona being broke despite an annual salary of $1.5 million in the summer of 1984.
SSC Napoli (1984 to 1991)
For the 1984/85 season, Maradona joined Italian first division side SSC Napoli for a record transfer fee of 24 million deutschmarks. Napoli had never been Italian champions before and had only just escaped relegation in the previous season. However, no better offers were forthcoming. In order to pay the enormous transfer fee, club president Corrado Ferlaino had taken out a syndicated loan. A journalist who asked Maradona if he knew who the Camorra were and what influence they had in the southern Italian port city was expelled from the press room by a furious Ferlaino. Maradona was then welcomed by some 75,000 fans at the Stadio San Paolo. The people of Naples associated Maradona with the hope of finally being able to stand up to the more successful clubs from the economically stronger north of Italy such as Juventus Turin, AC Milan and Inter Milan. For them, "Diego" was more than just a footballer, and Maradona's origins meant he had little trouble identifying with the Neapolitans and returning their affection.
Serie A was the home of many world stars in the 1980s. Maradona took time to adapt to the Italian style of play, which was characterised by robust defending, resulting in a remarkably low goal average in the league during that decade. At the start of the 1984/85 season, SSC Napoli won only one of their first nine league games. However, results improved significantly as the season progressed. The club ultimately finished the season in a secure mid-table position and Maradona was instantly voted Italy's Footballer of the Year. Napoli then brought in a new coach, Ottavio Bianchi, who gave Maradona more protection and freedom on the pitch, allowing him to have an even greater influence on the attacking play. In addition, players such as Ciro Ferrara, Fernando De Napoli and Salvatore Bagni developed into key performers alongside him. In the 1985/86 season, Napoli finished third in the table and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Maradona was now walking at the peak of his career. After helping Argentina win the World Cup in the summer of 1986, he led SSC Napoli to their first ever league title in the 1986/87 season as playmaker, top scorer and provider, captain and integration figure. On top of that, the club also won the cup at the end of the season. This unimaginable success gave rise to an unprecedented fan cult in Naples. The city sank into a state of emergency. Car parades, street parties and murals with Maradona's portrait dominated the scene. Popular chants among the tifosi became Ho visto Maradona! ("I saw Maradona!"), a kind of declaration of love to Maradona.
At the start of the 1987/88 season, Maradona turned down an offer from AC Milan and prematurely extended his contract in Naples, which originally ran until 1989, until June 1993, with his annual salary increased to $5 million. In the aftermath, much pointed to the club winning the championship again: Napoli's forward line, consisting of Maradona, Bruno Giordano, and the newly signed Careca, quickly earned the nickname Ma-Gi-Ca and rocketed the club from victory to victory. With five matchdays remaining, Napoli held a commanding four-point lead at the top of the table. However, the club went on to pick up just one point out of a possible ten, putting the championship out of reach. Rumours persist to this day that the end-of-season losing streak was linked to the Camorra, who would have made huge losses from illegal sports betting if they had won the title again. Maradona became top scorer with 15 goals. In the 1988/89 season, Napoli again finished second in the table and lost the cup final to Genoa, but the club beat the likes of Juventus Turin and Bayern Munich in the European Cup and won the UEFA Cup for the first time against VfB Stuttgart.
Immediately after this success, Maradona asked club president Corrado Ferlaino for his release. On the one hand, he had already celebrated the greatest possible successes with Napoli from a sporting point of view. For another, he felt increasingly crushed by life in Naples and the affection of Neapolitans. Added to this were personal scandals such as the birth of an illegitimate son and links to the Giuliano clan, who courted Maradona and increasingly supplied him with cocaine and prostitutes. According to Maradona, Ferlaino had verbally assured him in the pre-season that he would be allowed to leave the club if they won the European Cup. Now, however, Ferlaino has turned down all offers, including one from Olympique Marseille. By his own admission, this made him Maradona's jailer. Maradona responded by returning from summer vacation a month late and throwing himself into the nightlife. He celebrated cocaine excesses after every weekend match until Wednesdays, before returning to team training on Thursdays to prepare his body for the next game. Maradona's drug use did not go unnoticed by SSC Napoli officials. The club even helped induce negative doping results by giving false urine samples. As long as Maradona played, Napoli's success continued. In the 1989/90 season, the club once again became Italian champions, two points ahead of AC Milan.
In the summer of 1990, Maradona became the most hated person in the country due to the incidents at the World Cup in Italy (see section "World Cup 1990"). After the tournament he returned to SSC Napoli out of form and overweight. His six goals in the 1990/91 season all came from penalty kicks. The antics off the football pitch increased, the sporting success decreased. In the European Cup of Champions, Napoli was eliminated in the 2nd round, in the league, the title defense moved into the distant future. In February 1991, the police opened an investigation after Maradona's name was mentioned several times during a wiretap operation in connection with drugs and prostitutes. In the wake of this, he was later sentenced in absentia to 14 months' imprisonment for possession and passing narcotics. Previously, on 29 March 1991, he was found to have taken cocaine in a doping sample taken two weeks earlier after a home win against AS Bari. Maradona's drug addiction - long an open secret in Naples - had thus become an official reality. On 1 April 1991 he left Naples for Argentina. On April 6, the Italian Football Federation imposed a 15-month ban on him until June 30, 1992, which was subsequently given worldwide effect by FIFA.
On 26 April 1991, Maradona was arrested for drug possession with two friends during a raid in the Caballito district. In the subsequent court case, he was required to go to rehab, among other things. At the same time, he hired a private fitness trainer to get him in shape for a comeback.
Maradona's contract with SSC Napoli remained valid after the ban expired until the summer of 1993. However, the player showed little interest in returning to his club as he was now considered persona non grata in Italy and would have faced further legal action. Through his manager Marcos Franchi, he demanded the early termination of his contract, which club president Ferlaino refused, as this would have allowed Maradona to join a new club without a transfer fee. In August 1992, he finally tied his return to numerous conditions and concessions, which the club largely did not agree to. His move to Sevilla FC was finally announced at the end of September 1992.
After Maradona's departure, SSC Napoli began their slow decline, falling into financial difficulties and reaching their sporting nadir when they were re-founded in Serie C1 in 2004. It would not be until 2012 that the club would win another national title, the Coppa Italia.
In 259 competitive matches, Maradona had scored 115 goals. His shirt number 10 has not been issued by the club since 2000.
Sevilla FC (1992/93)
The move to Sevilla FC was masterminded by Carlos Bilardo. The former Argentina coach, with whom Maradona had won the 1986 World Cup, had taken over as head coach of the Andalusians in July 1992 and convinced the club's management to sign his compatriot. Sevilla were unwilling to pay Napoli's asking price and FIFA intervened in the stalled negotiations. Maradona had publicly criticised the world governing body in the past as an "autocratic organisation", but top officials were concerned about his participation in the upcoming and commercially important 1994 World Cup in the United States. Therefore, FIFA Secretary General Sepp Blatter took on the role of mediator and achieved a surprisingly quick breakthrough in negotiations for the football public on 21 September 1992. As a result, Sevilla FC paid Napoli US$7.5 million and signed Maradona. To raise a large part of the transfer fee, the club agreed to host numerous friendly matches and sold their TV broadcasting rights to Silvio Berlusconi's media group Mediaset.
On 4 October 1992, Maradona made his comeback in a 2-1 defeat to Athletic Bilbao on matchday five of the 1992/93 Primera División. After a year and a half without a competitive game, he was running behind his best form and was no longer the player who had dominated world football in the mid-1980s. He made up for his athletic deficiencies by anticipating match situations, and his standards were still red-hot. On 19 December 1992, he produced arguably his best performance in a Sevilla shirt in a 2-0 home win over Real Madrid. In February 1993 he even returned to the national team, for whom he had last appeared in the 1990 World Cup final. However, trips to the national team led to disputes with the club's board. In addition, Maradona's lifestyle also caused numerous escapades at Sevilla. When he lost form towards the end of the season and was substituted prematurely against Real Burgos on the penultimate matchday, he publicly fell out with coach Bilardo. That ended his second spell in Spain after just one season.
Newell's Old Boys (1993/94)
In September 1993, Maradona moved back to Argentina to join Newell's Old Boys. His stint with the Rosario club was short-lived. He played five competitive games until December. After that, a muscle injury and his strained relationship with coach Jorge Castelli led him to leave the club again early in 1994. On 2 February 1994, he fired an air rifle at journalists besieging his villa near the Bonarens suburb of Lomas de Zamora and was given a 34-month suspended prison sentence.
Boca Juniors (1995 to 1997)
After serving a 15-month ban for taking banned substances at the 1994 World Cup, Maradona made a comeback to Boca Juniors in the Argentine Primera División in October 1995. However, the club only finished a disappointing fourth in the 1995 Apertura. Mauricio Macri was subsequently elected as the club's new president and a new coach, Carlos Bilardo, was hired. Maradona and Bilardo reconciled and Boca Juniors played for the championship for a long time in the 1996 Clausura. In the hot phase of the title race, however, Maradona missed five penalties in a row. Boca lost the connection and finished only fifth. At the end of the 1995/96 season, Maradona left the club temporarily. In April 1997 he signed a new employment contract and on 9 July 1997 he returned to the football pitch after eleven months towards the end of the 1997 Clausura. At the beginning of the 1997 Apertura, Boca Juniors faced Argentinos Juniors on 24 August. After the match, Maradona had to go for a doping control, whereupon he was again found to have taken cocaine. Maradona initially had the result contested and was thus allowed to continue playing. On 25 October 1997, he played his last professional game in a 2-1 away win against River Plate. As indications grew that the challenge would be rejected, Maradona pre-empted another ban and announced his official career end on 30 October 1997, his 37th birthday.
