In April 2006, almost two decades after they last shared air time together at Mexico 86, Gary Lineker flew to Buenos Aires to interview Diego Maradona for the BBC documentary When Gary Met Diego.

After being given the runaround by Diego’s ‘people’, Lineker finally got through the front door of Maradona’s parents’ house, where the fallen idol now resides. Over lunch, the two talked drugs, obesity and overdosing on pizza – plus that goal he knocked in with his hand. FourFourTwo got our hands on the full, unedited transcript.

You look in good shape...
I’m having a great time. After losing 54 kilos and having detoxed, I feel well. Perhaps before I was well on the outside – today I’m well on the inside.

You’re living with your parents again. It must take you back to your childhood.
Yes, yes. Every time my mum comes to wake me up, it’s like going back in time. But it’s really beautiful, when you come home and you see how your father is, how your mother is, how your brothers are. When you’re in another country, or in the state I was in, I didn’t enjoy my family. Today I enjoy them.

You grew up in a very poor area. Did that make you determined to escape that life?
There were eight children and my father worked such a lot to support us. But that made everyone strong. Thank God the one who could reach the heights was me. And now, just as my parents made sacrifices when we were children, we are able to give them a good life in return.

At what point did you realise you had a special talent?
I don’t think you ever truly realise. You want to reach the highest level possible, but I think you play, you have fun and you look for things in life. I wanted to play in the First Division, I wanted to have fun, I wanted my parents to be proud of me and that’s what prompted me to keep wanting more. The talent, I believe, becomes evident, but you just can’t imagine everything that you can do.

After you made your Argentina debut at just 17, you continued to improve very, very quickly. How disappointed were you not to make it into the World Cup squad on home soil in 1978?
I cried. It was very hard, very hard to take. Coach [Cesar Luis] Menotti told me that I had a lot of time ahead, but he didn’t convince me. That World Cup was my time, my place. I was in very good shape for ’78 and even though I was only 17, I would have played with a lot of energy. Instead I was captain of the junior team that won the Japan tournament, but...

As a result Spain 82 was your first World Cup. Was that a steep learning curve?
Yes, it was a bad World Cup for everyone involved. I got an injury before the tournament and reached the game against Belgium in a bad state. I wasn’t well. We had a great team with names – Passarella, Fillol, Kempes, Bertoni, Valdano – but we didn’t do what we were promising.

And for you the tournament ended with a red card against Brazil...
Of course. It was a bad World Cup. We had the names but we didn’t find the right team and it was hard. So we lost against Italy and we lost against Brazil.

Against Italy, Claudio Gentile kicked you throughout the game. Do you envy the protection players are given these days?
Nowadays they are more protected. In ’82, Gentile could have been thrown out, but he would have been thrown out today. It was always said that we had to look after the players who wanted to entertain, but there was very little fair play on the field, even if they talked about it a lot. In 1990 also, they gave us so many kicks, especially against Cameroon, but nobody said anything.

In 1982 you joined Barcelona. How did it feel to have to leave Argentina and move away from your family?
It’s very difficult to leave the people you are attached to, to leave your customs and move to another country and another football, but it also gives you the same sensations. I was prepared for Barcelona and for big football, but my thoughts went further than that. Later, with the World Cup team, I did a couple of interesting things...

Hosting 'Links' at his mum's house
Hosting 'Links' at his mum's house


It didn’t really happen for you in Barcelona. Why was that?
I couldn’t play a whole championship because I had hepatitis for two years, and it didn’t help that Andoni Goikoetxea broke my ankle – oof! But Barcelona is an incredible club, it’s beautiful and any player would like to play for them, or for Real Madrid. I lived well there, but we won just one Copa del Rey during my time.

It was during your time at Barcelona that you became involved with drugs...
Yes, the drugs started in Barcelona. It began as entertainment and ended very badly. You get used to the drug and you become an addict. It was something that I shouldn’t have done and I totally regret it, particularly as I have daughters.

From there you went to Napoli and had a fantastic time, achieving so much...
In Napoli every Sunday, there were 100,000 people and we were in seventh heaven. They used to say let’s win, let’s beat Juventus, Milan, Inter, but then they started to want more. They wanted the Championship, they wanted the UEFA Cup, then they wanted the European Cup. We won two Scudetti, we won the Coppa Italia, we won the UEFA Cup and we spoilt them. For a team like Napoli to win two championships in Italy is amazing. It’s a really big deal because if it isn’t Juventus, it’s Milan, and if it isn’t Milan it’s Inter or Roma.