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Comment by aazaa | Hacker News Reader

Not sure why this is here (don't follow soccer and never heard of Maradona), but the "Hand of God" incident is an entertaining read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_hand_of_God

and watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccNkksrfls

On second thought, this was probably a hack of sorts.

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It's presumably here because HN is not parochial and Maradona was a Michael Jordan level global superstar, with some claiming him as the greatest ever at his sport.

after Pele, in so many aspects (including soccer)

Well, in direct comparison Pelé seems a bit deficient in tragic dark sides. That makes him greater in many ways, but also less of an attention magnet. On the list of Roman emperors people can name, Nero will rank quite close to the top.

he had some too https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-10-18/peles-daughter-dies/1...

But the parallel with Nero somehow is quite on point. They had, surprisingly, many similarities.

Maradona is the Michael Jackson of football. Out of this world both on and off pitch/stage. A larger than life charismatic eccentric. See the other goal he scored in the hand of God game (a world cup semi final no less) to see a complete picture of what he was all about.

Did you mean Michael Jordan?

I think he meant Michael Jackson both for the eccentricity and talent. If I were to think of an analog to Michael Jordan in football, I think of Pele. Although, in my opinion, and also relatively speaking, I think Pele accomplished a lot more than Michael Jordan in the corresponding sport.

Given that he said pitch/stage and not pitch/court, I assume he did mean Michael Jackson.

It's interesting that you've never heard of one of the most famous people in the world. Probably a reflection of insular American media perhaps. It doesn't work in reverse, Babe Ruth was one of the most famous people in the world even though most people around the world don't follow baseball.

Most countries on earth don't really play baseball. In those, the huge majority of people have never heard of Babe Ruth.

It would be even more interesting to compile a list of the world's most famous people that most of the world's people have not heard of.

My point is that a person can be very famous around the world and still not known by many people. Parochialism doesn't need to be invoked, just math.

10 years ago, Captain Crunch was my next door neighbor. Yes, that Captain Crunch. One time he asked me, in reference to the actor's name being mentioned in the media, "Who's Brad Pitt?".

I laughed my ass off, because I decided he was the only person in LA County to have asked that question anytime recently. Incidentally, I guarantee you he has no idea who Diego Maradona is.

Crunch also once asked me, 2 days after the election, "Did Obama win?". He was traveling overseas and was "out of the loop". I saved the email and laugh about it to this day.

(If you don't know who Crunch is, and you're using this website, that's funny.)

I am not criticizing or sneering, but I am astonished that there are people that have never heard of Maradona.

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