1983: Maradona gets seriously injured

From 1982 to 1984, Argentinian legend Diego Armando Maradona (now 47) played for Barcelona. The club's official website has today the story of how the Argentinian got severely injured at the beginning of his second season at the club.




Wednesday night marks the 25th anniversary of the day when Goikoetxea made his infamous tackle on Diego Armando Maradona. That night, as Julio Alberto remembers, the Argentinian’s ankle “went crack!” and the team’s hopes took a frightful knock.

It was a Saturday, the 24th of September 1983 to be precise, the night of the Mercè Festival in Barcelona. Barça were entertaining Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou. In the 13th minute of the second half, Goikoetxea hurtled in on Maradona’s lower leg.

César Luis Menotti was manager of the side back then, and looking back on the events said “I had the two great soloists of the time, Schuster and Maradona. So, my job was just to get the orchestra playing in tune. I knew that as long as the orchestra got the tune right, the soloists would appear. But I would sadly miss them for many, many games, especially Diego”.

Champions in town
It was the fourth game of the 1983/84 season. Barça were the defending cup champions, and Athletic Bilbao had won the league. [read more]

See the video here




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