The feeling among fans is anticlimatic as ‘businessmen have appropriated the ball that used to belong to the people’
J
onathan Zamora was seven years old the last time Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1986. “I witnessed perhaps one of the most sublime moments in the history of football,” he says, retelling a story that has become a pillar of his life.
Zamora, a Mexican football fan, does not remember how his father, Antonio, got tickets to the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. But he does clearly remember the goals: first when Diego Maradona used his “hand of God” to push the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. And then the “goal of the century”, where the Argentinian went on a slalom run, dribbling past half the England team before scoring.
In those days, tickets in Mexico were sold in packages of 13 for about $150 per person to see all 13 games [about $442, or £330, today]. “I have very vivid memories and others that are a little blurry. I remember being afraid of the height of the stands; we were in the cheapest seats,” Zamora says. He also recalls “the explosion of emotion” during the game.
