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Sunday Oliseh admits that if you played clean against Diego Maradonna you had ‘no chance’

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Sunday Oliseh has told FourFourTwo that Diego Maradona was unplayable – if you tried to play “clean” against him.

The Nigeria legend lined up against Maradona in the 1994 World Cup for the Super Eagles, losing 2-1 in the end. This was Maradona’s last World Cup as a player and marked the first of many times that Argentina would draw Nigeria at the tournament.

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Speaking almost 30 years after that match, Oliseh has told FFT just how special it was for him to compete against one of the greatest players of all time – and how sad it is that the world lost Maradona in 2020 at the age of just 60.

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Argentine professional football player Diego Armando Maradona (1960 - 2020) smiling during the 1994 FIFA World Cup Group D match Argentina vs Greece at Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, US, 21st June 1994.
Argentine professional football player Diego Armando Maradona (1960 – 2020) smiling during the 1994 FIFA World Cup Group D match Argentina vs Greece at Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, US, 21st June 1994.

“It was weird when Maradona passed – I felt strange the whole day,” Oliseh tells FFT. “Diego gave so much joy to people during his life, especially to his countrymen. He took football to a whole new level.

“Playing against him was awesome, and somehow it still hurts when you see images of him, to think that he has gone and at such a young age – just 60. Diego gave everything to the beautiful game.”

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It begs the question – how would one have got the better of such a legendary forward on the field?

“If you decided to play clean against him, you had no chance – he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head,” Oliseh reveals. “The only way to trouble him was to be aggressive.

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“Despite his stature, he had superb ability: one slight movement and he was gone. Diego was special like few other players have been.”

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