All is not what it seems in this image
Every sporting superstar has at least one iconic image. An image that transcends the sport and evokes wonder and amazement in the mind.
This precisely captured moment endures, perfectly capturing the subject’s craft in all its glory whilst both describing and summing up the incident better than any amount of words could possibly do justice.
No photograph seemingly captures the fantasista in such a wondrous manner as the one taken above of perhaps the greatest Number 10 ever, Diego Armando Maradona, during a World Cup.
A one-man team wrecking machine, during his peak nobody could stop Diego – summed up perfectly by the host of Belgian defenders seemingly terrified at the prospect of facing the advancing number 10, like a herd of gazelle spotting their predator.
Seemingly pushing and shoving each other to the front of the queue: ‘You tackle him!”, ‘No, YOU tackle him!’ Sensing their impending doom, are they about to simply fall over one by one like a toppled row of dominos? Or are they no more than a wobbling row of skittles, about to get bowled over by the oncoming onslaught?
The photograph evokes all of these scenarios, and more.
However.
I say the word ‘seemingly’ above quite a lot for a reason: because all is not as it seems with the photograph, as excellently dissected by Craig Robinson in his website, Flip Flop Flyin.
If you want to know its secrets, head over there and take a look, or if you’d rather have a go at working it out for yourself, search for and watch a video of Argentina v Belgium from World Cup ’82 (which Belgium won btw…)
However, if you want the mystique to remain, staying ‘spoiler free’ as it were, I suggest you simply scroll back to the top of this page and continue to admire the sheer majesty of Maradona and that ‘moment’ frozen in time.
