You know someone special is coming to town when people start buying tickets to listen to him talk fourteen years after his retirement from football.

When that man is Diego Armando Maradona, the people’s choice as the greatest footballer of all time, you understand the excitement. His visit Australia is the first since 1993 in that famous two leg World Cup qualifier against Australia.

His statistics are hugely impressive: 492 games and 258 goals for his various club teams and 91 Internationals for Argentina for 34 goals, yet they don’t come anywhere near to describing his unique talent and greatness.

He is the only player to win the Golden Ball at both the FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA World Cup in 1979 and 1986.

His 1986 World Cup triumph in Mexico where he single handily inspired his country to success long lives in history as the greatest individual performance in a World Cup.

During the course of the tournament, Maradona attempted or created more than half of Argentina’s shots, embarked on 90 dribbles some three times more than any other player and was fouled 53 times winning his team twice as many free kicks as any player. Maradona also scored or assisted 10 of Argentina’s 14 goals and despite being heavily marked during the final played a crucial part in all three winning goals ensuring that he would be remembered as one of the greatest names in football history.

The second goal against England when he dribbled past 6 English players including the goalkeeper is well renowned as the greatest goal of all time. Such a feat would be amazing even at a low level of football, but to achieve it against world class players in a World Cup, underlies his greatness.

At Napoli, Maradona reached the peak of his professional career. He quickly became an adored star among the club’s fans, and in his time there he elevated the team to the most successful era in its history. Led by Maradona, Napoli won their only Serie A Italian Championships in 1986/87 and 1989/1990, placing second in the league twice, in 1987/88 and 1988/89. Other honours during the Maradona era at Napoli included the Coppa Italia in 1987, (second place in the Coppa Italia in 1989), the UEFA Cup in 1989 and the Italian Supercup in 1990. Maradona was the top scorer in Serie A in 1987/88.

To understand what he achieved at Napoli, one must understand the economic and cultural landscape of Italy where the wealthy aristocrat North prosper against the poor peasant South. Giant teams such as Juventus of Turin and the Milanese giants Inter and AC Milan dominate the game sharing the trophies year after year yet Maradona arrives and breaks the shackles of the powerful Northern teams to challenge them in his tenure at the club. His persona in Naples reached God-like proportions, loved for giving the Neapolitans belief and pride after years of failure. The team has not won in nearly 25 years since, further enhancing the achievement of Maradona’s time.

Later on, in honour of Maradona and his achievements during his career at Napoli, the #10 jersey of Napoli was officially retired.

The man was simply unstoppable during his peak years from 1985 to 1990. Blessed with the highest level of technical ability ever seen in a footballer, he had an outstanding football brain, an exhilarating burst of speed, a low sense of gravity (with bull like strength on the ball) and a will and determination to succeed driven from his poor background. This poor background gave him strong political beliefs and explained his choice of clubs from Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli as traditional working class football clubs that competed against the traditional upper class clubs such as River Plate, Real Madrid and the Northern Italian clubs.

He has declared his opposition to what he identifies as imperialism, notably during the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. There he protested George W. Bush’s presence in Argentina, wearing a T-shirt labelled “STOP BUSH” (with the “s” in “Bush” being a swastika) and referring to Bush as “human garbage”.

In August 2007, Maradona went further, making an appearance on Chavez’s weekly television show and saying: “I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.”

In December 2007, Maradona presented a signed shirt with a message of support to the people of Iran: it is to be displayed in the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ museum.

A genius on the ground, opinioned, passionate — and wild off it — this football legend will be on our shores on Jan 20 in Sydney and January 21 in Melbourne.

In all my time I have never seen any one footballer like him, and I doubt I ever will.

Diego Armando Maradona, you are the greatest!