Random Thought #269: Hand öF Di’o

There’s a famous incident in Soccer called “The Hand of God,” in reference to Diego Maradona punching the ball into the net during one of the World Cup matches. The name comes from Maradona being interviewed afterwards, and when asked about the “handball” (which is considered a foul offense), he relies, “Even if there was a hand, it was the hand of God.”

It’s really funny to me, since Maradona is considered one of the legit GOATs. As in there are plenty of people who could be considered the greatest soccer player of all time based purely on skill, but there are only really 4 acceptable considerations for the genuine single greatest player of all time, those being: Ronaldo, Messi, Pele, & Maradona. It doesn’t really matter how you feel about the individuals, if you had a gun to your head and had to guess Whö the other person was thinking of, you’d be a fool not to guess one of these 4…

Difference between Ronaldo and Messi

Soccer Sluts Love The Beautiful Game (Lion-O’s Foot[ball] Fetish)

So, that was a long background to what I really wanted to talk about. Since, though Maradona’s “Hand of God” is the most famous hand-ball in World Cup history, it’s oddly not the most controversial. Something about Maradona’s aura let’s him be an out-in-the-open cheater who gets away with it, and everyone still loves him. Yet, this next individual is probably considered one of Soccer’s biggest villains.

Luis Suarez, infamous for many things, but in this case, we’re taking about the 2010 World Cup where he prevented Ghana from scoring by blocking the ball with his hand while standing on the goal line. I won’t explain any more than that, other than Ghana was the last African nation in the tournament that was being held in Africa, so they were especially pissed to be knocked out (even though all they had to do was score a PK…)

What I find funny about one of the main differences between the incidents other than the fact that Maradona is treated like a Hero while Suarez is treated like a villain is the fact that Suarez actually received proper retribution for his actions. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but decided to do it anyways and suffer the consequences, a red card, which means he’d have to leave the game and not play in the next one. Which, if you ask me, is fair. Maradona played in the game after he scored with his hand…

There’s a lot more that I could say about this, but I feel line I’d end up talking around the burning bush. So, instead of continuing this thought, I’ll finish with a quick fact about me: I’m a big fan of Luiz Suarez and kinda hate Diego Maradona (though Not as much as I hate Pele)…