The highest compliment anyone could pay anyone else when I was growing up in England in the 1980s was “skill” (as in “man, your new skateboard is so skill”), and nobody was more skill than Diego Armando Maradona. His name 12 as the highest form of praise, on the soccer field and elsewhere (“man, your new skateboard is so Maradona”). Then I saw him score against Italy in the 1986 World Cup, leaping several feet into the air outside the left edge of the six-yard box to tap the ball deftly over the outstretched right leg of the Italian captain, past the outstretched arms of the keeper, and into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal. It was evident that Maradona was not merely skillful, but skill 13 . The next time Maradona scored was June 22, the day Argentina played against England. The two nations had last clashed four years earlier, not on a soccer field but in the Falklands War. By the time Britain had retaken the islands from Argentina, more than 900 men (most of them Argentines) had lost their lives. The victory saw Margaret Thatcher’s popularity soar in Britain; in contrast, the defeat 14 the downfall of the right-wing military junta that had ruled Argentina since 1976. All that was ancient history four years later. Maradona scored both of Argentina’s goals in a 2-1 victory over England. The second of them, 11 dazzling seconds of superhuman skill, was voted Goal of the Century in 2002. When Maradona executed an exquisite arabesque, stretching his right leg elegantly behind him, I would not have been surprised if he 15 into the air and started flying. He appeared to be moving through a different 16 from the England players, who came to tackle him only once he was already past them. It’s amazing!