Thurday 22nd June 2006, was the 20th anniversary of the famous Hand of God goal, scored by the Argentine, Diego Maradona.
That goal and the sublime one that followed by Maradona, sealed the end of Englands hopes of winning the 1986 World Cup. This year England could end up playing against Argentina in the final, if they do England could once again be facing the Hand of God, also known as El mano de Dios.
Lionel Messi, the young Argentine forward was wearing the Adidas +F50 TUNiT football boots at the 2006 World Cup. As is the trend at the moment, the football boots have their personal identity attached to them. Lionel Messi, has decided to stir up those that are still bitter about the Hand of God incident, by having ‘El mano de Dios ’86‘ wriiten on the side of his football boots.
Maradona admitted in his 2002 autiobiography “Now I feel I am able to say what I couldn’t then. At the time I called it “the hand of God”. Bollocks was it the hand of God, it was the hand of Diego! And it felt a little bit like pickpocketing the English”.
Following its 20th anniversary, it would be particularly pleasing if the English supporters were able to finally put the Hand of God to rest.
The “Hand of God” will never go away, nor will “The Goal of the Century”. It’s time the English fans and the English press grow up and stop whining and stop blaming others for your shortfalls. Even in blogs about the 2006 WC final match and ref Elizondo, the English always have something bad to say if an Argentine is involved. I doubt England will ever win the Cup again, whereas we will no doubt do so. I wish for a WC final match between Argentina and England so we can whoop your behinds again and further fuel the rivalry!!
I’m English and I could not care less about the hand of god. Maradonas other goal alone deserves to win any match. I think Messi is a little out of order to publicly support cheating. However I think Messi is one of the best players in the world. He is great, just like Rooney.
Nice of Adidas to try and cash in, but should it not be Puma his actual football boot sponsors who should have released an anniversary pair of boots!?