“He only let me be the best in the world for eight years” - Mario Kempes jokes about what he didn’t like about Diego Maradona

Argentine legend, Mario Kempes has joked about his late countryman, Diego Maradona in a recent interview. The World Cup winner shared that he held the mythical striker in the highest regard but joked that did not like him because he stole the spotlight from him.

Kempes is a highly regarded figure in his own right, scoring 20 goals and providing five assists in 43 games for his country while helping them to a World Cup win. Maradona on the other hand, scored 34 goals in 91 games for his country, leading them to the 1986 World Cup with one of the most complete performances ever in that competition.

Speaking about the late legend in a recent interview with FIFA, Kempes said:

“We always had a huge amount of respect for each other. What I didn’t like was that he only let me be the best in the world for eight years (laughs). But no, there was a lot of respect between us. Words can’t describe him. He’s an example of what the Argentinian player can do. He was small in stature, but he had this amazing mental strength and stellar ability. He had tricks up his sleeve that no other magicians had.”

Diego Maradona passed away in November 2020, but his nation has surely done his memory proud in recent years, claiming the World Cup in 2022 and recently retaining the Copa America.

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Harvard professor reveals why Diego Maradona means so much to Argentina

Harvard professor, Mariano Siskind has shared why Argentina legend Diego Maradona means so much to his country. The World Cup-winning striker is a mythical figure in his country and following his death, there was pronounced national mourning.

Speaking to the Harvard Gazette, the Argentine Professor of Romance Languages and literature said:

"At an individual level, people cried to mourn the death of a public figure whom they loved deeply. But they were also mourning their own youth, their past, because Maradona’s presence in our lives is tied to very happy moments of our lives."

"Maradona’s death also has an important social and political meaning because when he was at his best in the World Cup of 1986, and Argentina was at the beginning of its democratic transition with Raúl Alfonsín as president, he was able to create, for brief moments, a sense of community, a community of people in awe of what Maradona was doing."

"It was not necessarily a nationalistic feeling, at least not for me, but the possibility of a being in common of sorts, something that is rare if not impossible in a place like Argentina, a country always in contradiction with itself."

Siskind concluded his description of Diego Maradona, saying:

"When he was on the pitch, he created something that was similar to a secular divine experience, an experience of what Hegel calls the Absolute. For people like me, this only happens through art, but then again soccer is a performing art, at least when Maradona was on the pitch."

"For me, Maradona is Beethoven; John, Paul, George, and Ringo rehearsing at Abbey Road Studios to record the White Album; Picasso painting “Guernica”; he is Shakespeare, Cervantes, Joyce, Borges; or Miles Davis and Bill Evans playing together; and a little bit of “Antigone.” Watching Maradona was akin to an experience of transcendence."

Diego Maradona will be fondly remembered for his contribution to his country's footballing legacy.