Maradona was a perfect representation of the human ability to be contradictory, to convey ugly and beautiful at once
“A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possesses at least two things besides: gratitude and purity” – Friedrich Nietzsche, on love, perseverance, and moving beyond good v evil.
Diego Maradona said that when you’ve been to the moon and back, things get difficult. “You become addicted to the moon and it’s not always possible to come back down.”
Continue reading...Argentina, Naples, and the world of football were in mourning on Wednesday at the death of Diego Maradona, in many people’s eyes the greatest player of all time, following a heart attack. He was 60.
The Argentinian president Alberto Fernández, who declared three days of national mourning, said that Maradona had taken his country to the “highest of the world” with his virtuoso performances in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. “You made us immensely happy,” he wrote. “You were the greatest of all. Thanks for having existed, Diego. We will miss you all our lives.”
Continue reading...Manchester United have been hit by a cyber attack on their systems but say they are not “currently aware of any breach of personal data associated with our fans and customers”.
The club, who host West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday, confirmed the hacking on Friday evening and said all systems needed for the match remained secure.
Continue reading...Hamilton has just equalled the record of seven F1 world championships – many believe he is the greatest driver of all time. And this year, more than ever, he has been leading the fight against racism
At the end of 2019, Lewis Hamilton had a realisation about Formula One. “I was looking at pictures of all the teams – they do these team photos in front of the garage or on the track – and they’ve posted all these pictures and I’m like, there are no people of colour in any of these teams.”
Hamilton says he had always thought that his presence and his incredible success would “spark change”. Somewhat naively, he now acknowledges he thought his career as the world’s most successful racing driver – along with the presence of his dad, Anthony, and his racing driver brother, Nicolas – would be enough to “open up doorways” for others. The realisation that after all these years it wasn’t happening led him to rethink.
Continue reading...Lewis Hamilton delivered high drama and high emotion for the spectacle of a coronation worthy of one of the greatest champions Formula One has produced. His victory at the Turkish Grand Prix sealed the championship and his seventh title. With it Hamilton has achieved what was once thought impossible, matching Michael Schumacher’s record tally and in doing so becoming the most successful F1 driver of all time.
He could not have achieved it in greater style than with the panache and mastery he produced at Istanbul Park in what can rightly be described as a champion’s drive.
Continue reading...With British skiers nervous about booking holidays in Europe, travel specialists are predicting an exodus to the north
The Scottish mountains may be an unlikely beneficiary of the Covid-19 pandemic. With British skiers nervous about committing to a package holiday with a tour operator in one of the main European destinations, travel specialists are predicting the rise of the DIY ski trip, which could be good news for the Cairngorms.
“There’s clearly still an enormous amount of uncertainty about what will happen across the winter season,” said Rob Stewart, founder of Ski Press PR, who represents clients in the ski industry. “The general view is that December – and I’m talking about for UK skiers – will be a write-off in regards to skiing. This is mainly due to uncertainties on when resorts will really start to open up and, of course, the quarantine and Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel.”
Continue reading...As his 80th birthday approaches, Neil Diamond reminisces about Pete Seeger, the Everly Brothers and how a baseball team’s desertion led him to the guitar
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and for me the most important aspect of growing up there was the Dodgers baseball team. Everybody in Brooklyn loved the Dodgers. They were the underdog but we were loyal. I followed the games closely, with dreams that they would win the World Series and be recognised as the champions I knew they were.
Continue reading...After being abused as a boy in Nigeria and trafficked to London at 14, boxing and piano playing gave him hope and at 32 Bilal Fawaz is finally able to fight professionally
“There is beauty in darkness,” Bilal Fawaz says with a poetic flourish as we sit on an old bench outside the Cricklewood Boxing Gym in this stark corner of north-west London. “I became best friends with darkness and pain a long time ago.”
The sky is sombre, with black clouds rolling in, and Fawaz talks with electrifying force. He is a newly professional boxer but his past is haunting and his future uncertain. Fawaz was abused as a boy in Nigeria and then trafficked to London.
Continue reading...This docuseries could have asked bigger questions on domestic violence, or the murder of Pistorius’s scarcely mentioned girlfriend. Instead, it is a flawed, fawning hagiography
The BBC provoked an outcry last month when it ran a two-minute trailer for this four-part documentary series (BBC Two and BBC iPlayer) that referred to “an international hero who inspired millions” who had “suddenly found himself at the centre of a murder investigation”, without once mentioning the name of the woman Pistorius killed: Reeva Steenkamp. If you did not know the story, you would probably have thought you were about to watch a re-examination of a murder investigation gone wrong and the righting of a terrible miscarriage of justice. The BBC eventually apologised and replaced the advert with something they said was more representative of the tone of the film.
They should just have left it. It was a meretricious trailer for a meretricious film by a director – Daniel Gordon – who, in one of the press interviews for the series, said he was “still flip-flopping” on the matter of Pistorius’s guilt.
Continue reading...Harrington, who recovered from scary fall last year, reached top of 3,000ft granite wall in Yosemite in just over 21 hours
Emily Harrington has become the fourth woman to free-climb El Capitan, the 3,000ft granite wall in Yosemite national park, in a single day.
Related: El Capitan: How did the climbers do it?
Continue reading...Diego Maradona is showing signs of improvement after undergoing an operation for possible bleeding on the brain.
Dr Leopoldo Luque, the 60-year-old Argentinian’s personal physician, has said that Maradona “laughed” and “grabbed my hand” a day after the procedure.
Continue reading...The former Argentina captain and World Cup winner Diego Maradona will undergo surgery for a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain, his personal physician said on Tuesday, after he was admitted to hospital in La Plata, about an hour from Buenos Aires. Maradona coaches the local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.
The operation was expected to begin on Tuesday to address the condition, which is a pool of blood, often caused by a head injury, that can put pressure on the brain.
Continue reading...Sir Bobby Charlton, widely considered to be England’s greatest ever footballer, has been diagnosed with dementia.
The 83-year-old, who was England and Manchester United’s record goalscorer until recently, has the disease, the Telegraph said, with his wife, Lady Norma Charlton, content for his condition to be made public in order to help others with dementia.
Continue reading...England have won the 2020 Six Nations title after Ireland fell to a 35-27 defeat to France in Paris. The result meant Eddie Jones’ side edged France on points difference after their 34-5 win over Italy in Rome.
England’s win had left the situation delicately poised, with Ireland needing to win with a bonus point to be sure of claiming the title or by six points to claim it on points difference. France needed to win by 31 points, with a bonus point.
Continue reading...Two of America’s best athletes are getting married after Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird announced their engagement.
The couple boast an impressive list of achievements. Rapinoe has won two World Cups and an Olympic gold medal with the US national team, and picked up the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the world’s best women’s player in 2019. Bird, meanwhile, is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. This month, the 40-year-old won her fourth WNBA title to go alongside her four Olympic gold medals with Team USA. She has also carved out a successful career in Russia, winning five EuroLeague titles with Spartak Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Continue reading...Surfer tackles huge swell off Co Sligo – after checking lockdown rules allowed it
It’s been compared to the monstrous big waves of the Pacific. But for Conor Maguire, an Irish surfer, who has claimed what may be his country’s largest ever swell, it was almost on his doorstep at Mullaghmore in County Sligo.
The biggest question for Maguire was not whether he wanted to try it, but whether it was socially acceptable to go out in the midst of a national lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...In the end, Tao Geoghegan Hart’s 39-second victory in the Giro d’Italia ahead of the overnight leader, Australian Jai Hindley, was not the tightest the race has ever seen. That honour remains with the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal’s win by 16sec in 2012. But none of the three Grand Tours has ever gone into its final day so tightly poised, with less than a second dividing Hindley and Geoghegan Hart as they prepared to start Sunday’s brief closing time trial into Milan, after more than 85 hours and over 2,000 miles of racing.
On paper, Geoghegan Hart was expected to have the upper hand, and so it proved over the pancake flat course through the Milanese suburbs to the majestic Piazzo Duomo. The 25-year-old Londoner gained time gradually but inexorably on the diminutive Australian, visibly churning a far larger gear as Hindley opted to pedal a smaller ratio with a higher cadence but less power. At the only time check with five kilometres remaining the Londoner had a 22sec lead, meaning the race would be won if he avoided a crash or a puncture.
Continue reading...Top club Santos signed a contract – now suspended – with the former Brazil striker who was convicted of rape in Italy in 2017
A public debate over sexual violence and rape culture has erupted in Brazil after one of its leading football clubs tried to recruit a convicted rapist to lead its attack.
Santos Futebol Clube – which has produced sporting legends including Pelé and Neymar – announced the highly controversial signing of the former Manchester City striker Robinho on 10 October.
Continue reading...The world 400m champion Salwa Eid Naser has escaped a doping ban on a technicality – after one of her missed drug tests was struck off due to a “confused” tester knocking on a door containing gas canisters by mistake.
An independent tribunal found that a doping control officer who had come to test Naser in Bahrain in April 2019 had been thrown off by the unusual numbering system on the buildings around her apartment.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary condemns ‘cynical and reckless’ bid to disrupt Games, before they were postponed
Russian military intelligence services were planning a cyber-attack on the Japanese-hosted Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo this summer in an attempt to disrupt the world’s premier sporting event, the UK National Cyber Security Centre has revealed, disclosing a joint operation with the US intelligence agencies.
The Russian cyber-reconnaissance work covered the Games organisers, logistics services and sponsors and was under way before the Olympics was postponed due to coronavirus.
Continue reading...