When Gary met Diego - Uncut

At Mexico 86 you got through to the quarter-finals, where you played us, England. There was a lot of build up to that game because of the Falklands conflict. Both sides said at the time that wasn’t important – was that true for you?
It seems to me that everyone was talking about the Falklands but we just wanted to play a football game. You’re not going to resolve anything by thinking about anything other than winning... winning that game against England.

And was it your hand or the Hand of God?
It was my hand. I don’t mean any disrespect to English fans but this is something that happens. We used to do this, I’d scored goals before in Argentina with my hand. Shilton was already there so I couldn’t reach higher and head it, so I did that [gesticulates by putting his fist upwards]. Then I put my head back and I started running. When I started to run at first Shilton didn’t realise. The one who told him was the sweeper [Terry Fenwick], he saw my hand go up. When I saw the linesman running back to the centre circle, I was shouting “Goal”, then I looked behind to see whether the referee had taken the bait. He had, so that was it.

Did your team-mates know it was a handball?
Yes they did, which is why they didn’t come over to celebrate with me. I was saying, “Come on, come on, hug me let’s do it properly, let’s go the whole way so the goal is allowed.” Thank God it was.

In England it would be regarded as cheating. How do you see it?
I don’t think it’s cheating, it’s cunning. Is it cheating to handle the ball? Oh no, no, no. It’s not cheating. It’s a craftiness. Maybe we have a lot more of it in South America than in Europe, but it’s not cheating.

Why did you say it was the Hand of God?
Because God gives us the hand. And because it’s very difficult for it not to be seen by two people, the referee and the linesman, so that’s why I said it was the Hand of God.

Struck by divine inspiration...

Your second goal is probably the only time in my career that I felt like applauding an opponent scoring a goal. Is it your best?
It’s the dream goal. Us footballers always dream of scoring the best goal in history, we dream it and we have it in our heads. The truth is to score that goal, for me, was fantastic, and in the World Cup, incredible.

Was it better because it was England?
When you talk about playing against Italy or, for example, Uruguay or Brazil it is much more complicated to score that kind of goal, because the English player is a lot more noble and honest on the pitch.

I think they were trying to kick you, they just couldn’t catch you...
Of course, was it Peter Reid? He wanted to kick me; you could see him trying, but just not making it. And then when I faced the sweeper, Fenwick, I dummied him and he didn’t know what to do, whether to go this way or that. Then Shilton came out and I dummied him too, and Butcher closed in and gave me a kick on my right leg, but I’d already touched the ball home.

It was an incredible goal, even more so given that the pitch was terrible. Every time you put a foot down the turf moved...
It was bad, very bad. We almost couldn’t even walk on that pitch and it was very, very difficult to carry the ball and give it, move it around. But all the ingredients came together. If the ball was moving wrong I would correct it and it all happened very fast and came together. I had the possibility of passing or going on; I went on and, well, you know.

What about the last 20 minutes, when John Barnes came on?
Of course, what a great player he was, that guy used to play very well. Barnes made it difficult for us, he made everything that we’d planned very difficult.

Was winning that World Cup the highlight of your career?
It was the ultimate achievement, a moment of total glory. It was a World Cup in which we weren’t the favourites but we became stronger as we progressed, and I was captain, so for me it was the ultimate. When Germany scored to make it 2-2 in the final, I said to myself “the cup is leaving me, no, please no”. Then when I set up Burruchaga for the winner I said “you returned it to me, thank you”.

A lot of people say that Maradona won that World Cup on his own, that Argentina didn’t have a good team. What do you say?
No, no, no. We had a great team. A good team became a much greater one because of my presence, I recognise that, but I didn’t win the World Cup alone. Without the team’s contribution I might have won the game against England but not all the games we won after that. Maybe I stood out from the others, but we had Valdano, Burruchaga and many others playing at a very, very good level.

In 1990, you were playing for an Italian club, the World Cup was in Italy, and you went very close to winning it again.
Yes, but with far more complications, which is why it’s very hard to win the World Cup because everything is concentrated into one month and you need no injuries and no problems in your head. In Mexico everything was given to us, in Italy we had injuries.

After Argentina beat Italy at Italia 90, the nation where you’d lived for seven years turned against you. Do you regret that?
If the deal had been that I would have to stay there and end up paying for knocking Italy out then I’d have said OK, I’ll pay my dues. They threw me out, but the joy I felt knocking Italy out was living it. Fantastic.

Do you think there was a campaign in Italy to get you out?
Yes, later on. Caniggia also had problems at Atalanta. That’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it? All year we were the villains. It’s really hard to live in Italy when you go to play in Verona and they put a banner up saying ‘Wash yourselves, you’re dirty’. But the people of Napoli were with me, because they knew me.