“GO TO MEXICO AND TRACK DOWN DIEGO MARADONA,”said the editor of FourFourTwo. A simple sentence and such an interesting idea, but so fraught with difficulties.
One: Mexican football’s second division was about to finish and there was little guarantee that he would stay next season.
We had visions of getting there, only to discover Diego pictured lying on a beach somewhere far away. The last regular game of the campaign was mid-April. The earliest we could get there was April 29, days before the Clausura play-off final.
Two: when we made contact with Dorados de Sinaloa, Maradona’s club, they were polite but clear that the Argentine does not give one-on-one sit-down interviews. The 1986 World Cup winner spoke to the media only in pre- and post-game press conferences.
Three: Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico – Diego’s home since taking charge of Dorados – was a byword for narcos and international drug cartels. The United States Intelligence Community regarded the Sinaloa Cartel, of which Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was the leader, as the most powerful drug trafficking organisation on the planet.
It was a place where few tourists dared to go, and when FFT purchased The Rough Guide to Mexico, there wasn’t one single word on Culiacan, a city of 785,000 people, in its 1,979 pages. Almost every mention of Sinaloa, the state of which Culiacan is the capital, related to crime. Recently, the US had imposed its highest level four ‘Do not travel’ warning on Sinaloa due to the danger to visitors. Syria also had a level four.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2024-Ausgabe von FourFourTwo UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2024-Ausgabe von FourFourTwo UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
"THE PLAYERS DIDN'T SEE KEVIN KEEGAN'S 'MELTDOWN' AS ANYTHING NEGATIVE. WE LOVED HIM FOR HIS PASSION"
The Geordie recalls King Kev's rant, shares his love for Ossie Ardiles and reveals what it's like to cross the Tyne-Wear divide
"HODDLE HAD BEEN PLAYING FOR MONACO UNDER WENGER, SO WE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT WHEN HE JOINED SWINDON HE WAS LIGHT-YEARS AHEAD!"
The tireless winger opens up on playing in his dad's shadow and making the wrong kind of headlines at Sunderland...
"I'M PROUD TO BE THE FIRST AFRICAN IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE - BUT LOOK WHO CAME LATER"
FFT chats to the three Boy's A Bit Special stars of Issue 1: first, a humble hotshot on rejecting Arsenal and being 'Nuddy'
AROUND THE GROUNDS
Rangers' in-form keeper tells FFT he has his sights set on a Three Lions recall
WHY MESSI'S ARGENTINA HAD TO GET 'WORSE' TO CONQUER WORLD
The Albiceleste didn't have their most talented squad in 2022, and their star wasn't at his absolute peak - but 4-4-2 helped them to win anyway...
WHY 1999 WAS THE FINEST MOMENT FOR 4-4-2... AND SIR ALEX FERGUSON
Manchester United swept to a famous Treble thanks to the management skills of their legendary boss - and a formation that suited them perfectly
HOW THE 4-4-2 BECAME BRITISH FOOTBALL'S MOST ICONIC FORMATION
A system of playing inspired the name for this very magazine - on these shores, for numerous reasons, it's football heritage
FINDING DIEGO
A little over a year before his untimely death at the age of 60, Diego Maradona was managing Mexican second-tier side Dorados de Sinaloa - FourFourTwo went deep into drug cartel country to track him down
RESPECT
That's what women's football demands more than anything. Its status has grown exponentially during FourFourTwo's lifetime, but finally the long and arduous battle for recognition is starting to pay dividends
EL TEL THE MAN WHO HELPED TO LAUNCH FourFourTwo
Terry Venables was the cover star for FFT's launch issue in 1994 a year after his death, former players pay tribute to one of the finest managers Britain has ever produced