Argentina hero Diego Maradona, 60, has died. And the world of football will be forever poorer for his absence.

Diego Maradona practised his famous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England at the 1986 World Cup on the training ground before the match, his former team-mate Jorge Valdano has claimed in a new book.

The best way to understand the greatness of Diego Maradona—soccer’s trickster god and the scorer of what’s widely hailed as the greatest goal in history—comes not from a highlight film of his goals or ...