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Diego Maradona: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
A series of provocative, moving and illuminating interviews with (arguably) the greatest soccer player ever...
Diego Armando Maradona’s death on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, was a death that had been foretold many times. Even when he was alive accounts of his life had a tragic register, of the kid from the slums whose magical talent on the soccer field was squandered by drug addiction.
But his death allowed millions of people to ponder both the tragedy and triumph of his life, of a man who was arguably the world’s greatest soccer player, who was also a champion for the world’s poor. Adorned in the talismanic number 10 shirt that Maradona made his own while playing Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli and Argentina, hundreds of thousands flocked to the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to pay their last respects; millions around the world were similarly moved, creating makeshift altars and murals in his honor. Vatican News called him “soccer’s poet.”
The interviews collected in Diego The Last Interv iew span the breadth of his life and career as a player, coach, and public figure, providing a panoramic and extremely candid accounting of his rollercoaster life, many translated into English for the first time. Included in the book are encounters with Pele and Gary Lineker, who Maradona played against in the 1986 England-Argentina game that sent shockwaves around the world. The book also features his reflections on his stuggles with drug addiction, the highs and low of his experience playing for Napoli, his strong views on Lionel Messi, the governance of world soccer, and his worries about the impact of Covid on the world's poor.
The Last Interview is a fitting tribute to a complicated and brilliant soccer player who moved the world and changed the game of soccer forever.
Introduction by Roger Bennett, the co-host of Peacock's Men in Blazers show
Diego Armando Maradona’s death on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, was a death that had been foretold many times. Even when he was alive accounts of his life had a tragic register, of the kid from the slums whose magical talent on the soccer field was squandered by drug addiction.
But his death allowed millions of people to ponder both the tragedy and triumph of his life, of a man who was arguably the world’s greatest soccer player, who was also a champion for the world’s poor. Adorned in the talismanic number 10 shirt that Maradona made his own while playing Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli and Argentina, hundreds of thousands flocked to the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to pay their last respects; millions around the world were similarly moved, creating makeshift altars and murals in his honor. Vatican News called him “soccer’s poet.”
The interviews collected in Diego The Last Interv iew span the breadth of his life and career as a player, coach, and public figure, providing a panoramic and extremely candid accounting of his rollercoaster life, many translated into English for the first time. Included in the book are encounters with Pele and Gary Lineker, who Maradona played against in the 1986 England-Argentina game that sent shockwaves around the world. The book also features his reflections on his stuggles with drug addiction, the highs and low of his experience playing for Napoli, his strong views on Lionel Messi, the governance of world soccer, and his worries about the impact of Covid on the world's poor.
The Last Interview is a fitting tribute to a complicated and brilliant soccer player who moved the world and changed the game of soccer forever.
Introduction by Roger Bennett, the co-host of Peacock's Men in Blazers show
176 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 24, 2025
Saved from the dreaded 1 star review because the man himself still made it interesting. However, this felt like a very low effort book. It offers very little context into the interviews and the ones picked seem like a strange mix. The cover is great, though!
August 25, 2025
"Diego Maradona: The Last Interview" forma parte de una serie editorial que recopila entrevistas finales o significativas de figuras icónicas. En este volumen, se presenta una selección de diálogos y declaraciones de Diego Armando Maradona a lo largo de su vida, con especial foco en sus últimos años. El formato es sencillo: sin demasiada edición ni análisis, el texto deja hablar a Diego tal como era, directo, contradictorio, vehemente.
El valor del libro radica en el testimonio. Escuchar a Maradona en sus propias palabras, sin filtros ni pulidos, permite acercarse a su universo emocional y a sus ideas más recurrentes: la lealtad, la política, la traición, el fútbol como herramienta de redención. También están presentes sus enojos con el poder, sus críticas a la FIFA, su devoción por el pueblo y su lucha interna con los excesos.
Sin embargo, como obra editorial, el libro tiene limitaciones. La selección de entrevistas no siempre está contextualizada, y la edición resulta algo desordenada. Para quienes ya conocen bien la trayectoria del Diez, muchas de las citas pueden parecer reiterativas o ya conocidas.
Le otorgo una calificación de 3/5. Es una lectura valiosa como documento oral y emocional, especialmente para quienes desean escuchar al Maradona más auténtico, pero queda algo corta como producto literario o biográfico. Un testimonio crudo y sin adornos, pero también sin la profundidad o el enfoque que podrían haberle dado más peso.
El valor del libro radica en el testimonio. Escuchar a Maradona en sus propias palabras, sin filtros ni pulidos, permite acercarse a su universo emocional y a sus ideas más recurrentes: la lealtad, la política, la traición, el fútbol como herramienta de redención. También están presentes sus enojos con el poder, sus críticas a la FIFA, su devoción por el pueblo y su lucha interna con los excesos.
Sin embargo, como obra editorial, el libro tiene limitaciones. La selección de entrevistas no siempre está contextualizada, y la edición resulta algo desordenada. Para quienes ya conocen bien la trayectoria del Diez, muchas de las citas pueden parecer reiterativas o ya conocidas.
Le otorgo una calificación de 3/5. Es una lectura valiosa como documento oral y emocional, especialmente para quienes desean escuchar al Maradona más auténtico, pero queda algo corta como producto literario o biográfico. Un testimonio crudo y sin adornos, pero también sin la profundidad o el enfoque que podrían haberle dado más peso.
January 29, 2023
good but short
May 27, 2024
Rating: 7/10
Diego Maradona, speaking in 1996 about Naples, the mafia, his life as an addict, and his new purpose:
Not sure how long his sobriety lasted, but this interview was fascinating. I get strong Charles Barkley vibes from the bit on not being an example.
2013 interview on FIFA and modern football:
There's something both strange and deeply refreshing about how Maradona gave interviews. Unlike other athletes of his caliber, he seems to have had no regard for media training or career politics; he spoke freely, and was more than happy to critique everything from FIFA to the United States to the Vatican. El Diego was a man of the people, and I have great respect for that.
With that being said, he could also be quite hypocritical, and not always particularly self-aware. Man of the people indeed.
-
There's one thing that puzzles me. Considering that the latter half of the 1980s was by far and away the pinnacle of Maradona's career, I find it strange that this book has no interviews from that time period (if I recall correctly it jumps from around 1980 to 1992).
Did he not participate in any interviews during the peak of his fame?
Diego Maradona, speaking in 1996 about Naples, the mafia, his life as an addict, and his new purpose:
In Naples, I didn't have any way out. It got worse and worse. In Naples I had already won everything. Naples is a beautiful city, but it has a lot of problems, do you understand? In Naples, you have to be Maradona in order to live. If you are anything less than Maradona, they kill you. That's the way it is. Wherever I went, the mafia could be there, the Camorra, but I was Maradona. I went in. I was their flag. They didn't love me because I was handsome or because I was good: they loved me because I beat the north of Italy. And because of this, "los capos" [the bosses] loved me because I made the people happy, the people they oppressed. But once a week, Sundays, I made the people happy. But in Naples, drugs were everywhere. They basically offered them to me on a silver platter...
No, I'm not an example. Parents are an example. I'm not an example to anybody. I want to tell people about my experiences, the experiences I've told you about, so that these experiences can be useful. To give people an assist...
I want to give them the example of a man who tried to make sense of a story that hurt him a lot. And I think I found meaning [in it]: if only one kid quits drugs, if only one kid says, "Diego, you helped me," I'm done for the rest of my life.
Not sure how long his sobriety lasted, but this interview was fascinating. I get strong Charles Barkley vibes from the bit on not being an example.
2013 interview on FIFA and modern football:
I say that the great player still exists, but he is no longer involved and tied to those who feed him, i.e., the people. There is a big difference between when I was playing and the present. Today the footballer believes he must play football and that's it. But no. For me it's correct that he supports his true source of income - the people, and that he protects those who will come after him.
There's something both strange and deeply refreshing about how Maradona gave interviews. Unlike other athletes of his caliber, he seems to have had no regard for media training or career politics; he spoke freely, and was more than happy to critique everything from FIFA to the United States to the Vatican. El Diego was a man of the people, and I have great respect for that.
With that being said, he could also be quite hypocritical, and not always particularly self-aware. Man of the people indeed.
-
There's one thing that puzzles me. Considering that the latter half of the 1980s was by far and away the pinnacle of Maradona's career, I find it strange that this book has no interviews from that time period (if I recall correctly it jumps from around 1980 to 1992).
Did he not participate in any interviews during the peak of his fame?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews