January 1985, Acerra, Italy. A teammate of Maradona’s at Napoli tells him that a man from his town has a seriously ill son who needs urgent surgery in France, and there is no money to pay for it.
The club president refuses to let Diego play. They had just paid 8 million dollars for his transfer from Barcelona and feared losing him to an injury on a muddy field. Maradona replied that London insurance could go to hell, and he went.
He played as if he were facing Juventus. He scored a goal that, they say, was the rehearsal for the one he would score against England a year later. Napoli won 4 to 0, but the money raised was not enough for the operation. Diego paid the rest out of his own pocket, covered in mud up to his knees and as happy as if he had gone back to playing on the dirt fields of his childhood in Villa Fiorito.