The Argentina legend has become infamous for a raft of unsavoury incidents throughout his career as a player and coach, on and off the pitch

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  Hand with the Gun

  In the months leading up to the 1994 World Cup, Maradona was really struggling for form and fitness, and was being hounded by the press because of it. Maradona reacted to this in a way only Maradona can, by firing a compressed air-rifle at reporters outside his home. Some reporters who were hit with the pellets suffered minor injuries. 

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  Maradona runs over cameraman & curses the man

  It was the day when Maradona was to name his 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup. His stresses were made even worse when he ran over a cameraman as he was driving to his news conference. Instead of being apologetic and asking if the man was alright, he hurled abuse at him and blamed him for the accident. Witnesses close to the incident recalled how Maradona could he heard saying: "What an a**hole you are. How can you put your leg there where it can get run over, man?"

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  Suck it up

  A Maradona-led Argentina were under pressure through their qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup but they eventually secured their place by beating Uruguay 1-0. Maradona could not hide his delight at this result and, after the game, was caught making a rather offensive gesture outside a window of their team bus, which can be named as a 'chupar'. Just as you thought it could not get any more controversial, during his post-match press conference he said: "They can suck it and carry on sucking it. This is for all Argentines, minus the journalists."

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  Maradona's curse

  Maradona and Argentina went into the 1990 World Cup full of critics, with no one apart from their own fans wanting them to do well because of their negative football. In their game with West Germany, Argentina's national anthem was roundly booed by the Germans. Maradona reacted furiously to this and could be seen mouthing the offensive Spanish phrase, “hijos de puta”, down the camera – which does not really need translating to understand what he is saying.