Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15832 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-05-20
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital
Interactive Menu

Synopsis
A profile of the greatest football player of his generation, Diego Armando Maradona. From his childhood in the slums of Buenos Aires, through his successes with Napoli and Argentina and his controversial career decline.

Customer Reviews

A sub-standard, makeshift collection of Maradona's greatest
Whilst this DVD cannot really be faulted on content - it does indeed contain footage and goals spanning the whole of Maradona's club career - it's biggest and most painful flaw is the quality of the footage itself. This is not a reference to picture quality, but rather to the sources of all the clips and goals etc. It seems the makers of the DVD have merely cobbled together whatever footage was readily available to them rather than investing in the rights to show everything as any football fan buying this DVD would expect. A couple of examples might illustrate the point: you do get the full library of Maradona's goals throughout his career but almost every single goal or piece of skill from his peak era at Napoli are from the "wormseye" behind-the-goal ground-level camera angle. Whilst this might be an acceptable TV replay angle, it is simply not good enough as the main format for presenting the material in a DVD such as this as all the skill and beauty of the goals are impossible to appreciate from this angle (there are countless lobs from outside the box where all you see is a close up of the net and the goalkeeper's back as the ball floats over his head - and so on...). Then you have the early days at boca juniors - some great archive footage, but presented here to a horrible musical soundtrack more befitting a porn film that a football video. No roar of the crowd, no commentary, no sound of foot hits ball hits net... Hardly the way to sit back and enjoy the goals. There is some World Cup footage but this is actually quite limited and in any event is also shown from the ground-level "replay" angle and often in slow motion and set to music again.

The appeal of a DVD such as this was always going to be the chance to view and enjoy some of the incredible things Maradona achieved on the pitch as one of the most gifted footballer's ever. Unfortunately, the makers seem to have put this collection together on the cheap and it is glaringly obvious from the end product. The glory of the Serie A years is reduced to poor behind-the-goal views only - you feel like you bought the cheapest seat in the stadium. The sublime early days at Boca are stripped of their character and atmosphere by being set to (awful) music. The World Cup footage, apart from suffering a combination of music and second rate TV angles, is severly limited and a little predictable.

Overall a great shame. Recommended more for fans of Maradona than for fans of football, as all the exquisite football on this DVD is lost without question in the sub-standard nature of the footage. You will feel like you bought a ticket to an incredible show but where your view was obstructed by the guy in front of you.

KING Deigo we hail you, BEST DVD ABOUT MARADONA
As a Fan of Deigo i've searched for years for a Cassett or DVD that will feature some of his most amazing skills and not the obviouse couple he did in any world cup.
This DVD manages to show you Deigo Maradona at every stage a fan whould want to see , from Camcorder footage of his childhood and early teens Soccer skills on fields , till his glorious days in Boca to his superstardom of Napoli and the world cups .
As a fan i remember one specific skill when i was a child i seen deigo do in a napoli match (flick it over his own head knee it over a defender and then left foot curling power shot with such grace past the on comming keeper) i found this Footage on this dvd with many more goals and wonderfull skills.
my only moan is that this DVD does not give you his corear in order it happened in his life
it tells you about what he was like in spain and then instead of showing you napoli next shows you his second stint in Spain the order of the sequences where seemingly rushed hence 4 stars instead of 5.
also includes high lights of 2 of his biggest matches one of them matches being napoli's European cup win in the late 80's over german side Stuttgart.
IF YOU WANT TO FIND A DVD WITH GOOD MARADONA SKILLS GOALS AND HARD TO FIND FOOTAGE THIS DVD IS THE BEST I'VE EVER SEEN .

Maradonna was great - this DVD is not as good
As a 7 year old I remember Maradonna's 'Hand of God' goal knock England out of the World Cup in Mexico '86. I hated him then, but as I have got older and watched more football I have come to appreciate that he was one of, if not the greatest footballer of all time.
Having read his autobiography 'El Diego', I wanted to see a collection of his play, to see how good a player he actually was, rather than just see 'the' second goal v England again and again.

This DVD does the job of showing his goals all through his career, starting in Argentina. There are some great goals, and they show a lot of skill - his Cruyff turns, and his balance stand out. However, the footage of his time in Barcelona and Napoli are very disappointing. I don't know if it is due to the rights the DVD makers had, but for Napoli, especially, the only camera angles you see are at ground level, a few meters to the side of the goal - so the perspective is really poor. Could they not show his goals from the traditional angle. Perhaps, in an era of Sky Sports we have been spoilt by seeing the game from every angle imaginable, and there just was not the same standard in the 80s. Also, there is footage from his time as a player for the national team - but there is not enough footage of this as I would have liked.

As for the DVD itself, it is Italian and seems to have been literally translated into English - with some comical results - things like "bombastic annihiliations from his left foot" (can't quite remember the quote)- extras are highlights from the UEFA cup final Napoli won and a Napoli league match v Juventus, but the commentary is in Italian.

The best thing on the DVD, is an amazing fight Maradonna was involved in v Athletico Madrid while at Barcelona. You see him knee a fan in the face, and all the players doing running kicks at each other - Cantona, eat your heart out. If that happened now, they would all be facing lifetime bans!

So, in conclusion, this shows lots of goals, lots of skill, but dodgy camera angles for much of the footage. Is Maradonna the best player ever? Possibly - but how much footage do we have of players from earlier eras - eg Pele, di Stefano, Cruyff, Best.
Definately, worth renting - rather than buying I would say.