Before Argentina meet England in the 2026 World Cup semifinal, one memory refuses to fade: Mexico ‘86, and the four minutes that produced the ‘Hand of God’ and the ‘Goal of the Century’. One goal remains forever contentious, the other remains untouchable. Ahead of Thursday’s clash, Daily Waadaa revisits that match and tells the story of how a seven-year-old boy's advice over the phone helped Diego Maradona score the greatest goal ever scored.
Argentina were up against familiar foes England in a battle between South American flair and European structure – and all eyes were on Diego Maradona.
He received the ball with his back turned to the English goal and two English shirts closing in. Couple of touches and a turn later, Maradona was racing towards the goal while the English players were chasing his shadow.
More defenders surrounded him, trying to snatch away the ball, but he found a way past all of them and made his way into the box.
The English keeper charged in, trying to close off the angle; other defenders also scrambled back to stop the Argentine but failed as he got the shot away and went off to the side to celebrate.
The only problem — he was off target. The ball rolled along the ground, narrowly missed the goal and went out of play.
Maradona rued missing what would have been an incredible goal in a FIFA friendly that took place in London on May 13, 1980.
Little did he know, he had just completed the dress rehearsal for the goal of the century.
“You moron! You shouldn’t have side-footed it ... you should have thrown a dummy, the keeper had already committed himself.”
After the match, which Argentina lost 1-3, Maradona received this unsolicited advice over the phone about what he had done wrong.
Maradona knew the criticism was correct, as he rushed his shot and instead should have just dribbled past the keeper. Still, he wasn’t ready to accept it.
And who can blame him, why should Maradona, a 20-year-old football prodigy, take goal-scoring advice from his seven-year-old brother!
Maradona recalled the conversation with his brother Hugo, who he affectionately called ‘El Turco’ in his autobiography ‘El Diego’.
“‘You little shit! It’s easy for you to say that, you’re watching it on the telly!’ But he really shut me up: ‘No, Pelu [Maradona’s nickname], if you’d thrown a dummy, you could’ve dragged it towards the sideline and finished with your right, do you see?’ The brat was seven years old!”
Six years after that friendly, Argentina were up against England in a World Cup quarterfinal at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, and this time, Maradona acted upon Hugo’s advice.
Maradona, playing in his second World Cup, had dragged an unfavoured Argentina side into the knockout stages but was not convinced about his side’s prospects.
“At that point in the competition I fancied Germany, I’m no fool,” Maradona revealed in the book.
The quarterfinal clash between Argentina and England was one of the most politically charged contests in World Cup history, as the memories of the Falklands War between the nations four years back were still fresh.
Before the match, the players played down the political tension, but Maradona later revealed the truth.
“Of course, before the match, we said that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War but we knew a lot of Argentinian kids had died there, shot down like little birds. This was revenge… we were defending our flag, the dead kids, the survivors.”
The first half ended 0-0, but six minutes into the second, Maradona “pickpocketed” England by scoring the most infamous goal in the history of the sport.
In Maradona’s words, “At the time I called it ‘the hand of God’. Bollocks was it the hand of God, it was the hand of Diego! And it felt a little bit like pickpocketing the English.
“[Jorge] Valdano had passed it to me, we’d played a one-two, they put pressure on him and he passed me a dud ball because he had no choice. I jumped. I jumped at the same time as the keeper with my fist outstretched but behind my head and ... goal, gooooaaaaaaaaal, go weeping to church. As I told a BBC journalist a year later: ‘It was one hundred percent legitimate because the referee allowed it and I’m not one to question the honesty of the referee.’”
England players were fuming, feeling they had been robbed by Argentina, by Maradona.
But four minutes later, the same players were left in awe of Maradona after conceding perhaps the greatest goal of all time.
I was on exactly the spot that I’d been on at Wembley that time in 1980, the exact spot! I was going to finish the same way but ... but God helped me. The God reminded me [the advice]Diego Maradona, 'El Diego'
“Here’s how it went: I started off from the middle of the pitch, on the right; I stepped on the ball, turned, and sneaked between [Peter] Beardsley and [Peter] Reid. At that point I had the goal in my sights, although I still had a few metres to go.
“I passed [Terry] Butcher on the inside and from this point Valdano was a real help, because [Terry] Fenwick, who was the last one, didn’t leave my side. I was waiting for him to stand off, I was waiting to pass the ball — the logical thing to do. If Fenwick had left me, I could have given it to Valdano, who would have been one-on-one against Shilton. But he didn’t do that. So I faced him, then threw a dummy one way and went the other, towards the right ... Fenwick tried so hard to close in on me, but I carried on and I already had Shilton in front of me.
“I was on exactly the spot that I’d been on at Wembley that time in 1980, the exact spot! I was going to finish the same way but ... but God helped me. The God reminded me [the advice], tic .. . and Shilton bought the dummy, he bought it. So, I got to the end and I went tac, inside ... at the same time Butcher, a big blond guy, caught up with me again and kicked me quite hard. But I didn’t care, I’d scored the goal of my life.”
Gary Lineker pulled one back for England late in the game, but Argentina held on and won the tie 2-1. The Albiceleste then beat Belgium 2-0 in the semifinal and West Germany 3-2 in the final to lift the World Cup for the second time.
Decades have passed since, but the English are still reeling.
After the match, several British gambling agencies reportedly returned the money to those who had bet on a tie in the England-Argentina quarterfinal, as according to them, Argentina’s first goal was illegal and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
In November 2008, 22 years after the match, Maradona, who was the Argentina manager at the time, was attacked by an English fan in Scotland named Ian Wellworth, who had lost a bet in that quarterfinal which eventually led to his financial ruin and the end of his marriage.
While the legitimacy of his first goal will continue to be debated, the second one will remain a part of football’s lore as the greatest goal of all time.
And even Maradona, reluctantly, acknowledged Turco’s advice helped.
“Whenever I see it again, I can’t believe I managed it, honestly. Not because I scored it but because it seems a goal like that just isn’t possible, a goal that you could dream of but never actually score.
“Now it’s become a legend, and as such there’s been all sorts of shit said about it. Like the fact that I'd thought about my brother’s advice to dummy it at the keeper. I didn’t, but I did later realise that unconsciously it must have entered my head, because I finished like my brother Turco had told me a little over six years earlier.”