Diego Maradona: The Last Interview

A series of provocative, moving and illuminating interviews with (arguably) the greatest soccer player ever...

Diego Armando Maradona's death on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, was a death that had been foretold many times. Even when he was alive, accounts of his life had a tragic register, of the kid from the slums whose magical talent on the soccer field was squandered by drug addiction.

But his death allowed millions of people to ponder both the tragedy and triumph of his life—a man who was arguably the world's greatest soccer player, who was also a champion for the world's poor. Adorned in the talismanic number 10 shirt that Maradona made his own while playing for Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, and Argentina, hundreds of thousands flocked to the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to pay their last respects. Millions around the world were similarly moved, creating makeshift altars and murals in his honour. Vatican News called him "soccer's poet."

The interviews collected in Diego Maradona: The Last Interview span the breadth of his life and career as a player, coach, and public figure, providing a panoramic and extremely candid accounting of his rollercoaster life, many translated into English for the first time. Included in the book are encounters with Pelé and Gary Lineker, whom Maradona played against in the 1986 England-Argentina game that sent shockwaves around the world. The book also features his reflections on his struggles with drug addiction, the highs and lows of his experience playing for Napoli, his strong views on Lionel Messi, the governance of world soccer, and his worries about the impact of Covid on the world's poor.

Diego Maradona: The Last Interview is a fitting tribute to a complicated and brilliant soccer player who moved the world and changed the game of soccer forever.

Introduction by Roger Bennett, the co-host of Peacock's Men in Blazers show.