Lionel Messi gave himself one last shot at World Cup glory as he and Julian Alvarez scored to secure a place for Argentina.They will face either France or Morocco, who play in Wednesday’s semi-final, on Sunday.

Messi fired into the top corner from the penalty Lionel Messi gave himself one last shot at World Cup glory as he and Julian Alvarez scored for spot (34) against the run of play to open the scoring after Man City striker Alvarez earned a debatable penalty following a collision with Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.

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Renowned for his ability to control the ball and create scoring opportunities for himself and others, he led club teams to championships in Argentina, Italy, and Spain, and he starred on the Argentine national team that won the 1986 World Cup.

Maradona displayed football talent early, and at age eight he joined Las Cebollitas (“The Little Onions”), a boys’ team that went on to win 136 consecutive games and a national championship. He signed with Argentinos Juniors at age 14 and made his first-division debut in 1976, 10 days before his 16th birthday. Only four months later he made his debut with the national team, becoming the youngest Argentine ever to do so. Although he was excluded from the 1978 World Cup-winning squad because it was felt that he was still too young, the next year he led the national under-20 team to a Junior World Cup championship.

Maradona moved to Boca Juniors in 1981 and immediately helped them gain the championship. He then moved to Europe, playing with FC Barcelona in 1982 (and winning the Spanish Cup in 1983) and then SSC Napoli (1984–91), where he enjoyed great success, raising the traditionally weak Naples side to the heights of Italian football. With Maradona the team won the league title and cup in 1987 and the league title again in 1990. Maradona’s stint with Napoli came to an end when he was arrested in Argentina for cocaine possession and received a 15-month suspension from playing football. Next he played for Sevilla in Spain and Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina. In 1995 he returned to Boca Juniors and played his last match on October 25, 1997.

Maradona’s career with the Argentine national team included World Cup appearances in 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1994. He dominated the 1986 competition in Mexico. In a 2–1 quarterfinal victory over England, he scored two of the most memorable goals in World Cup history. The first was scored with his hand (the referee mistakenly thought the ball had struck his head), a goal now remembered as the “Hand of God” goal. The second occurred after Maradona gained possession of the ball at midfield and dribbled through a pack of English defenders and past the keeper before depositing the ball in the goal. He did not finish the 1994 World Cup, because he tested positive for the drug ephedrine and was again suspended. Maradona also played on South American championship-winning teams in 1987 and 1989.

In 2008 Maradona was named head coach of the Argentine national team. Shortly after leading Argentina to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup, he and the country’s football governing body could not agree on a contract extension, and his tenure as the team’s head coach ended. In 2011 Maradona was hired to coach the United Arab Emirates club Al Wasl. However, the team struggled, and Maradona was fired the following year. He worked for several other clubs before becoming coach of Mexico’s Dorados de Sinaloa in 2018.

Source: Britannica

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Recall that the Argentine football legend died while recovering from a brain operation on Wednesday at the age of 60.

The arrival of Maradona’s body at the presidential palace has brought hundreds of people lining up to pay their respects to him.

Renowned for inspiring Argentina to win the World Cup in 1986, Maradona was most loved at club level for his spells with Boca Juniors in his homeland and Napoli in Italy, where he won the club’s only two Serie A titles.

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‘Pleasure arrives directly from God, it is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else, it is simply divine,’ the Pope told Italian writer Carlo Petrini.

He said there was no place for an ‘overzealous morality’ that denies pleasure, something which he admitted had existed in the church in the past.

The 83-year-old, born in Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina, insisted that this was ‘a wrong interpretation of the Christian message’ according to RTÉ.

‘The Church has condemned inhuman, brutish, vulgar pleasure, but has on the other hand always accepted human, simple, moral pleasure,’ he said.

Daily Mail

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The Argentina international, 33, sent a fax to the club on Tuesday saying he wishes to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect.

Messi had a clause in his contract which allowed him to leave for free, if he informed the club of his desire before 10 June.

Barca were beaten 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on 16 August.

Barcelona, though, believe the clause has now expired and Messi is contracted to the club until 2021 with a 700m euro buy-out clause.

The board will meet soon and some consider the only thing that could placate Messi is the resignation of the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and early elections. But the Argentine seems determined to leave the club no matter what.

A legal battle is now set to follow between the club and the player.

That date has now passed so Barca believe the clause has expired but Messi and his team feel it should be extended to cover the prolonged season – which ran until August due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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