Champions, feats, faith, music and a name chosen on a card: the World Cup begins in the mammoth stadium in Mexico City, where everything is possible
Here Pelé lifted the shadow from the ground and rose towards the sky. Driven by a celestial force, he climbed onto the highest branch of the football gods and remained there, in the rarefied air, for an eternal time, before hitting the ball with his head, while the anxiety of the defeated – Burgnich was there to follow their flight – faded into the serene despondency of those who accept that a god exists, without asking themselves why. For this reason the Sunday Timesthe day after the 1970 Brazil-Italy 4-1 final, headlined: “How do you pronounce Pelé? God”. Here Maradona, at lunchtime, precisely 1.10pm on 22 June 1986, caught in the grip of the heat, created a miracle, capable of making amends for the theft of the “Mano de Dios”, he then painted the “Last Judgment” by touching the ball twelve times, dribbling past all the Englishmen who stood in front of him like useless extras – Beardsley, Reid, Butcher and Fenwick, plus the goalkeeper, Shilton – ticking them off as you do on your smartphone with notifications that aren’t of interest, covering the distance of fifty-six meters in 10.6 seconds and finally delivering the most imaginative goal of all time to the history of football.