Maradona
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Maradona
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I was flipping through Goldin's weekly auction about an hour before it closed and wondered why an old stub from a Granada friendly in the 80's was included. This story is wild:
In the summer of 1987, Maradona was arguably at his peak in terms of superstardom. He had led Argentina to World Cup glory the previous summer in Mexico (Hand of God!) and the delivered Napoli their first Serie A title in the 1986/87 season, as well as a Coppa Italia. Meanwhile, his 20-year-old brother Lalo was mostly riding the bench at Boca Juniors. Over in Spain, Granada had just achieved promotion from the third to second division, and their President wanted to make a splash in the transfer market. Obviously Diego Maradona wasn't an option... but the other Maradona (Lalo) was. Diego met with the President, and told him if he signed Lalo he would play in a friendly match for Granada. Done deal.
So on November 15th, 1987 during an International Break, Maradona suited up for Granada alongside his brother Lalo and their even younger brother Hugo (18 and at the time playing for a Serie B side in Italy) in front of a sold out crowd in Andalusia. They played Malmö FF from Sweden, who at the time was being managed by Roy Hodgson, and won 3-2 with goals from both Diego and Lalo.
Loved the story, so had to have the stub.