WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : SPOTLIGHT : BEST OF PLAYERS, WORST OF PLAYERS

“How could we explain to the children, to the future generation, that this was the finest and also one of the most corrupt footballers of his or any other lifetime? Maradona was simply the best, and the worst, performer of his time. Beauty laced with poison, genius flawed by greed.

“He was not, I am quite sure, taking ephedrine to cure any cold or asthma. He was taking it to cheat. But even that is a simplistic observation, for no drug could give Maradona the skill, the balance, the imagination that are beyond almost all others. What he was attempting to do was to use the stimulant--one which accelerates the heartbeat and improves the flow of blood to muscles--to persuade his ailing body to give him one last month, one last hurrah.”