Lionel Messi will face England in a World Cup semi-final today in Atlanta. It’s the first time the Argentine legend has drawn England in World Cup competition, and it happens to land exactly 40 years after Diego Maradona punched a ball past Peter Shilton and then dribbled through the entire English defense in the same game.
The ghost of ’86 and the spectacle premium
On June 22, 1986, Argentina met England in a World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City. Maradona scored twice. The first goal, the infamous “Hand of God,” was a deliberate handball that the referee missed. The second was a 60-yard solo run widely considered the greatest goal ever scored. Argentina won 2-1.
That match became the single most referenced game in World Cup history, partly because of the goals and partly because of the geopolitical backdrop. The Falklands War had ended just four years earlier. Football became a proxy for something much bigger.
Messi’s crypto footprint is bigger than you think
