“Easily transcends the normal confines of sports journalism.”
Economist
“An incredible story, very well told.”
FourFourTwo
“Jaw-on-the-floor fascinating…a modern footballing classic.”
FHM
“Excellent and well-researched…will be difficult to research… will be difficult to surpass.”
Sunday Times
“Reads like a passionate novel of investigation…much more than just a biography, it’s about a world of corruption, intrigue and exploitation,”
As, Spain
“A piece of master craftsmanship”
Henk Span, Het Parool, Holland
“Few people emerge innocent in this book,”
La Nacion, Argentina
“Jimmy Burns is incapable of writing boringly. He has done as good and as honest a book as could be written about the poor boy from the wrong end of Buenos Aires, who went high and has fallen far…illuminating and atmospheric as it cuts through the web of myth, mystery and full-blooded hypocricy that surrounds on of the world’s most adored and detested sportsmen.”
Irish Times
“This is a praiseworthy attempt to unravel this brilliantly talented but weak-willed man, who lived to fulfil his football dream but could not resist the temptation to abuse his body with drugs. A compelling cocktail of celebration and cheating.”
Daily Mail
“Maradona’s life, diligently chronicled in this perspective and fair-minded book, is one of grotesque farce, a bilious sequence of operatic catastrophes. Gazza’s career compared with this looks like Emmerdale sat next to the Borgiaa…this is not, however, mere sensationalist sleaze. Burns knows Argentina well and his charting of the shanty boy’s trajectory towards moral and pharmaceutical meltdown is detailed in this scrupulously perceptive and fair-minded book.”
Pete Davies, Independent.
“Elegantly written and painstakingly researched.”
When Saturday Comes
“Love or hate the man, his is one of football’s greatest stories and so this is the best football book in ages”
Goal
“Burns’ forensic skills are to the fore in this deft, perceptive study of politics, corruption, exploitation and the occasional dash of genuine sporting genius”
Time Out
“I finished it thinking how great it would be to make something on Diego Maradona” – Asif Kapadia, director of the award-winning film Diego Maradona,
“The definitive work on Diego Maradona”
The 42
“A violent mix of sporting brilliance and personal disgrace”
Daily Mirror
