"God makes me play well. That is why I always make the sign of the cross when I walk out onto the field. I feel I would be betraying Him if I didn't."
-- Maradona

"It was as if we had beaten a country, more than just a football team."
-- Maradona, on defeating England in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup

"It was the hand of God."
-- Maradona's response when questioned by reporters about the infamous Hand of God goal after the England game

"It was like pick-pocketing the English and stealing a win."
-- Maradona, some years later, on the Hand of God goal

"When I wear the national team shirt, its sole contact with my skin makes it stand on an end"
-- Maradona, on the thrill of playing for Argentina

"I saw death close up and I wanted them to cover me, to caress me. When God decides it's time, I guess He'll come for us."
-- Maradona on the support of fans who stood vigil outside the hospital during his recent hospitalization

"If he thinks he's the best player of the century that's his problem."
-- Pele, rather perturbed he had to share the FIFA Player of the Century Award with Maradona

"I had the vote of the people. Pele won by the book."
-- Maradona, leaving little doubt who he thinks deserved the FIFA award

"Pele had nearly everything. Maradona has everything. He works harder, does more and is more skilful. Trouble is he'll be remembered for another reason. He bends the rules to suit himself."
-- Sir Alf Ramsey, legendary coach of England's 1966 World Cup team

"My main doubt is whether he has the sufficient greatness as a person to justify being honoured by a worldwide audience."
-- Pele

"The greatest footballer in the world."
-- Noel Gallagher, guitarist for rock band Oasis

"I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it every day."
-- Maradona, 1996, as part of Argentina's anti-drugs campaign.

"You put your left hand in
You take your left hand out
You put your left hand in and you shake it all about
You do the hokey cokey and you turn around
That's what it's all about
Oh Diego Maradona
Oh Diego Maradona
Oh Diego Maradona
He put the English out, out, out."
-- Sung by Scottish soccer fans, noted for their contempt of the English, in celebration of Maradona's Hand of God goal

"Jesus Saves - but Maradona scores on the rebound."
-- Said by many fans, many times

"Maradona is our maximum term of reference. No one embodies our essence better. No one bears our emblem more nobly. To no other, in the last twenty years, have we offered up so much passion. Argentina is Maradona, Maradona is Argentina."
-- Argentine psychologist Gustavo Bernstein