Diego Maradona died Wednesday, the immortal soccer star suffering a heart attack in his native Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Maradona’s legendary playing career briefly overlapped with San Jose Earthquakes’ head coach Matias Almeyda’s own playing career, Almeyda and Maradona on opposite sides of the Boca Juniors-River Plate superclasico in the mid-1990s.
They were both longtime Argentina internationals, but whereas Maradona’s role was to supply magic in attack, Almeyda was the engine room, a defensive midfielder doing the dirty work for the attacking stars.
Almeyda and Maradona did end up playing together, in a sense, as they traveled the world on an exhibition tour after Almeyda’s first retirement, and they clearly knew each other quite well, Almeyda’s playing career progression — from Argentine grande to Spain, Italy, and then back home again — mirroring Maradona’s.