"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-04-25T22:38:03Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/04/25/exp-bex-smith-intv-0425p.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="exp Bex Smith INTV 0425P"
data-first-publish-slug="exp Bex Smith INTV 0425P"
data-video-tags="2022 fifa world cup,brand safety-nsf health issues,brand safety-nsf sensitive,demographic groups,diseases and disorders,domestic alerts,domestic-health and science,experimentation and research,females (demographic group),fifa,fifa world cup,football (soccer),health and medical,iab-bone and joint conditions,iab-diseases and conditions,iab-injuries,iab-medical health,iab-science,iab-soccer,iab-sports,international alerts,international-health and science,knee disorders and injuries,labor and employment,musculoskeletal disorders and injuries,population and demographics,science,soccer events,society,sports and recreation,sports events,sports organizations and teams,women workers and professionals,workers and professionals,wounds and injuries"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Why have there been so many knee injuries to top women footballers?
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-03-11T09:46:31Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/03/09/womens-world-cup-equal-pay-treatment-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="womens world cup equal pay treatment spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="womens world cup equal pay treatment spt intl"
data-video-tags="australia,brand safety-nsf discrimination,brand safety-nsf sensitive,compensation and benefits,continents and regions,demographic groups,discrimination,domestic alerts,domestic-international news,employment discrimination,females (demographic group),fifa,fifa women's world cup,football (soccer),gender pay gap,iab-soccer,iab-sports,labor and employment,new zealand,oceania,pay gap,population and demographics,sex and gender,sex discrimination,soccer events,societal issues,society,sports and recreation,sports events,sports organizations and teams,unrest, conflicts and war,wages and salaries"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Women's soccer: Where it's at, where it's been and where will it go from here?
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-03-10T11:00:17Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/03/10/brentford-moneyball-premier-league-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="brentford moneyball premier league spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="brentford moneyball premier league spt intl"
data-video-tags="business, economy and trade,company activities and management,continents and regions,domestic alerts,domestic-business,domestic-international news,england,europe,humanities and social sciences,iab-business,iab-business and finance,iab-business operations,international alerts,international-business,london,northern europe,philosophy,product development,product innovation,product management,united kingdom"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Brentford's 'moneyball' philosophy bests teams with bigger budgets
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-03-06T08:31:44Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/03/02/penalty-kicks-emiliano-martinez-argentina-world-cup-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="penalty kicks emiliano martinez argentina world cup spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="penalty kicks emiliano martinez argentina world cup spt intl"
data-video-tags="2022 fifa world cup,argentina,continents and regions,europe,fifa,fifa world cup,football (soccer),france,iab-soccer,iab-sports,latin america,soccer events,south america,sports and recreation,sports events,sports organizations and teams,the americas,western europe"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Emiliano Martínez: The art of winning a penalty shootout
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-02-15T09:19:20Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/02/14/sebastien-haller-borussia-dortmund-cancer-recovery-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="sebastien haller borussia dortmund cancer recovery spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="sebastien haller borussia dortmund cancer recovery spt intl"
data-video-tags="borussia dortmund,brand safety-nsf health issues,brand safety-nsf sensitive,bundesliga,cancer,chemotherapy and radiation treatments,continents and regions,diseases and disorders,domestic alerts,domestic-health and science,domestic-international news,europe,football (soccer),germany,health and health care (by demographic group),health and medical,iab-cancer,iab-diseases and conditions,iab-healthy living,iab-medical health,iab-men's health,iab-soccer,iab-sports,international alerts,international-health and science,medical fields and specialties,medical treatments and procedures,men's health,oncology,soccer events,sports and recreation,sports events,sports organizations and teams,testicular cancer,uefa champions league,urogenital disorders and injuries,western europe"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Sébastien Haller: Borussia Dortmund star reflects on fairytale comeback from testicular cancer diagnosis
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-02-23T16:04:39Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/02/23/xherdan-shaqiri-chicago-fire-switzerland-football-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="xherdan shaqiri chicago fire switzerland football spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="xherdan shaqiri chicago fire switzerland football spt intl"
data-video-tags="2022 fifa world cup,bundesliga,chicago fire,cnn,companies,continents and regions,england,europe,fc bayern munich,fifa,fifa world cup,football (soccer),germany,iab-soccer,iab-sports,liverpool,mls,mls eastern conference,northern europe,soccer events,sports and recreation,sports events,sports figures,sports organizations and teams,switzerland,uefa champions league,united kingdom,warnermedia,western europe,xherdan shaqiri"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Xherdan Shaqiri talks to CNN about the Chicago Fire and Switzerland
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-01-27T15:48:48Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/01/27/rob-mcelhenney-wrexham-fa-cup-football-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="rob mcelhenney wrexham fa cup football spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="rob mcelhenney wrexham fa cup football spt intl"
data-video-tags="american football conference,fa cup,football (soccer),iab-soccer,iab-sports,nfl,soccer events,sports and recreation,sports events,sports organizations and teams"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Wrexham AFC owner Rob McElhenney on team's FA Cup run
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2023-01-19T13:55:25Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2023/01/19/manchester-united-davos-shop-front-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="manchester united davos shop front spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="manchester united davos shop front spt intl"
data-video-tags="alps,business, economy and trade,conferences and conventions,domestic alerts,domestic-business,economy and economic indicators,football (soccer),iab-business and finance,iab-business expos & conferences,iab-economy,iab-events,iab-soccer,iab-sports,international alerts,international-business,leisure and lifestyle,luxurious living,manchester united fc,mountains (by name),physical locations,premier league,sports and recreation,sports organizations and teams,world economic forum"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Manchester United sets up shop at Davos with luxury lounge in Swiss Alps
An unacknowledged son, photo ops with the mafia and humongous cocaine binges: it’s incredible that Diego Maradona found time to become the greatest footballer of his generation.
And yet, during his seven years at Napoli, Maradona catapulted an unheralded team to become Italian league champions – twice – won the World Cup with Argentina and nearly came within a whisker of defending it.
But you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Such was the case as Maradona’s personal life went on to eclipse his exploits on the pitch. Now, after decades keeping the world at arm’s length, the Argentine has gone on the record to have his say on a narrative long-calcified in public memory.
Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, British Oscar-winning documentarian Asif Kapadia has made a punchy – and surprisingly tender – portrait of the star rising and falling like a celestial yo-yo, tracking the Argentine’s turbulent spell in Southern Italy.
BON ISHIKAWA/AFP/Getty Images/CNN
Confessional
Visually, the film is composed entirely of archive footage, much of it culled from a 500-hour trove shot in the ’80s for an unmade documentary commissioned by Maradona’s one-time agent Jorge Cyterszpiler. However, it is Kapadia’s extensive access to the footballer himself that provides its revelations.
Maradona, famously capricious, unspools himself in voiceover recorded by Kapadia at his home. The picture painted is one of a man grasping for equanimity, still wrestling to find peace with a life lived recklessly and unapologetically.
Argentinian journalist Daniel Arcucci, British director Asif Kapadia and Maradona's former fitness coach Fernando Signorini pose during a photocall for the film "Diego Maradona" at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
“(Kapadia) achieved confessions … that I had never had after having followed him for 30 years as a journalist,” Maradona’s friend and biographer Daniel Arcucci told CNN Sport. And the footballer spilled all “in such a crude way, that I never expected from him.”
Kapadia’s interviews find the filmmaker in new territory: both his previous subjects, Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse, were dead before film production began. “I was hoping to look back on his life a little bit and be able to present it to him while he’s still around,” the director said, “for him to reassess certain choices that he made.”
Born 1960 in the Villa Fiorito area of Buenos Aires, Maradona was a “little black kid from the slum,” in the words of his former fitness coach Fernando Signorini.
Football, says Maradona, “was my salvation,” lifting him and his family out of poverty as he rose through the ranks of Argentinos Junior and Boca Juniors, before leaving for a world record transfer fee to Barcelona in 1982.
After an injury and illness-beset two seasons “there wasn’t another team in the world that would buy me,” Maradona says. Enter Napoli, the struggling relative in the Italian family. As one newsreader drolly puts it, “the poorest city in Italy buys the most expensive player in the world.”
Maradona on the beach with his parents.
El Grafico
The Camorra
Naples and Maradona had a natural affinity; the “Africans” of Italy is how the player coarsely describes the Neapolitans. Both were scrappy and fueled by adversity, both were passionate – perhaps too much so.
“I was no saint,” Maradona says, reflecting on his infidelity. While his football dazzled at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, his mistress Cristiana Sinagra was back in Italy, heavily pregnant with Diego Armando Maradona Sinagra. (For years the footballer refused to acknowledge paternity and did not meet his son until 2003).
The documentary also covers occasions Maradona came into contact with the Camorra – the Neapolitan mafia – with Kapadia flashing up photographs of the footballer smiling alongside members of the crime syndicate.
Representative for Maradona Stefano Ceci told CNN Sport via email that he could “categorically confirm that Mr. Diego Maradona has no involvement with the Neapolitan Camorra” and that the ex-player “has never been convicted by a court to support members of the Neapolitan Camorra (sic).”
The photographs, he explained, were taken at a time when “Diego was the most unapproachable person in Naples” and that, as Napoli fans, “the most powerful Camorra family in Naples … on several occasions looked for a photo shoot with Maradona inviting (him) to various birthday parties of their family.”
Maradon'a on-field genius would go on to be eclipsed by his exploits off it.
Alfredo Capozzi
Parallel to Maradona’s on-field genius, alcohol and drugs flowed. “One hit and I felt like Superman,” Maradona recalls of his first experience with cocaine while at Barcelona.
As a Napoli player at the height of his addiction he would party from Sunday to Wednesday, Maradona describing how he would return home and lock himself in the bathroom to hide from his infant daughters.
‘Lucifer lives in Naples’
But the crown slipped from the prince of Naples when he broke Italian hearts, scoring for Argentina in the semifinal penalty shootout that knocked the hosts of out the 1990 World Cup. One Italian publication ran a story claiming “Lucifer lives in Naples.” A member of the Napoli Utlras, meanwhile, confesses in the film: “I am still upset with Diego.”
The downfall was swift; the player was left isolated as the press turned on Maradona’s addiction woes.
A 15-month football ban soon followed for a failed drugs test in 1991. His career wasn’t over – who can forget the midfielder’s stunning strike against Greece at the 1994 World Cup before falling foul to another failed drugs test? – but Maradona never recovered his form on the pitch.
“He was used in a way,” Signorini told CNN, who makes a distinction between the mild-mannered “Diego” he knew and “Maradona,” a persona constructed as armor against a prying world.
“It’s (like) you’re opening up a path in the jungle: the first one is the one who will have to confront all the dangers, then for others the path is already open,” he added.
Subsequent footballers have learned from Maradona’s cautionary tale, Signorini implied, but for the Argentine “nobody could help him on this journey.” The wistful tone of many of the interviewees suggests they wish they could have.
Maradona during downtime listening to records at home.
El Grafico
There’s more sadness to Kapadia’s film than anticipated, and Maradona is on hand to comment on what was going on behind his younger self’s often doleful expression.
“By the end of (the interview sessions) I was asking quite tough questions,” said Kapadia. “He would try to divert and go off and give you something else entirely.”
Eventually a begrudging respect formed, he added, with Maradona telling the director “‘at least you’ve got the nerve to ask those questions to my face, not like most of those journalists who do it when I’m not looking.’”
At the time of writing Maradona had not seen the documentary, said Kapadia. Hopes that he would attend the gala screening at Cannes were dashed by a shoulder injury that kept him in Mexico where he is managing second-tier Dorados de Sinaloa.
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-06-11T07:29:16Z"
data-video-section="sport"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2018/06/05/diego-maradona-goal-of-the-century-hand-of-god-argentina-england-world-cup-1986-spt-intl.cnn"
data-branding-key="football"
data-video-slug="diego maradona goal of the century hand of god argentina england world cup 1986 spt intl"
data-first-publish-slug="diego maradona goal of the century hand of god argentina england world cup 1986 spt intl"
data-video-tags="argentina,diego maradona,england,europe,fifa,fifa world cup,football (soccer),latin america,northern europe,soccer events,south america,sports and recreation,sports events,sports figures,sports organizations and teams,united kingdom"
data-details="">
Shoulder injuries aside, Kapadia’s film argues that at the age of 58, perhaps some of Maradona’s internal wounds have begun to heal. The film’s postscript suggests, by the footballer’s standards, a journey has been taken in recent years.
So is Maradona now at peace with himself? “I hope so,” said the director.