He was the fifth child and first son of Diego Maradona 'Chitoro' and Dalma Salvadora Franco
'Doña Tota' (1930–2011). Both his parents were illegitimate children. His father took the family
name of his mother because his father did not recognise him as his own. Maradona's mother was
not recognised by her father, Atanancio Ramón Edisto Franco, until she was eighteen years old.
Maradona's parents were both born and brought up in the town of

Esquina

in the north-east

province of

Corrientes Province

, living only two hundred yards from each other on the banks of

the

Corriente River

. In 1950, they left

Esquina

and settled in Buenos Aires.

At age eight, Maradona was spotted by a talent scout while he was playing in his neighborhood
club

Estrella Roja

. He became a staple of

Los Cebollitas

(The Little Onions), the junior team of

Buenos Aires's

Argentinos Juniors

. As a 12-year-old ball boy, he amused spectators by showing

his wizardry with the ball during the halftime intermissions of first division games.

Club career

Argentinos Juniors and Boca Juniors

On 20 October 1976, Maradona made his professional debut with Argentinos Juniors, ten days before his
sixteenth birthday. He played there between 1976 and 1981, scoring 115 goals in 167 appearances before
his £1m transfer to

Boca Juniors

. Boca was the team Maradona always wanted to play for. Having joined

the Boca squad midway through the 1981 season, Maradona played through 1982 earning his first league
championship medal.

Barcelona

After the

1982 World Cup

, in June, Maradona was transferred to

FC Barcelona

in Spain for a then

world

record fee

5m ($7.6m). In 1983, under coach

César Luis Menotti

, Barcelona and Maradona won the

Copa del Rey

(Spain's annual national cup competition), beating

, and the

. However, Maradona had a difficult tenure in Barcelona. First a bout of

hepatitis

, then a broken ankle caused by an ill-timed tackle by Athletic's

Andoni Goikoetxea

threatened to

jeopardize Maradona's career, but after treatment and therapy it was possible for him to soon be back on
the pitch.

During his two injury-hit seasons at Barcelona, Maradona scored 38 goals in 58 games. At Barcelona,
Maradona got into frequent disputes with the team's directors, especially club president

Josep Lluís

Núñez

, culminating with a demand to be transferred out of

Camp Nou

in 1984. He was transferred to

Napoli

in Italy's

Serie A

for another world record fee,

6.9m ($10.48m).

Napoli

Maradona arrived in

Naples

and was presented to the world media as a

Napoli

player on 5 July 1984,

where he was welcomed by 75,000 fans at his presentation at the

Stadio San Paolo

. Sports writer David

Goldblatt commented; "They [the fans] were convinced that the saviour had arrived." A local newspaper
stated that despite the lack of a "mayor, houses, schools, buses, employment and sanitation, none of this
matters because we have Maradona." Prior to Maradona's arrival, Italian football was dominated from
teams north of Naples, such as

and

, and no team from

southern Italy had ever won the league title.

Nikola Radisavljević EPO 15/13

Diego Armando Maradona

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.
Maradona played for Napoli at a period when North-South tensions in Italy were at a peak due to a
variety of issues, notably the economic differences between the two. Led by Maradona, Napoli won their
first ever

Serie A Italian Championship

in 1986/87. Goldblatt wrote; "The celebrations were tumultuous.

A rolling series of impromptu street parties and festivities broke out contagiously across the city in a
round-the-clock carnival which ran for over a week. The world was turned upside down. The Neapolitans
held mock funerals for Juventus and Milan, burning their coffins, their death notices announcing 'May
1987, the other Italy has been defeated. A new empire is born.' Murals of Maradona were painted on the
cities ancient buildings, and new born children were named in his honor.

Napoli would win their second league title in 1989/1990, and finish runners up in the league twice, in
1987/88 and 1988/89. Other honors 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, and is the all time leading goalscorer for Napoli with