Diego Maradona, one of the greatest soccer stars to ever play the game, has died at the age of 60, the Argentinian Football Association announced Wednesday.
The cause of death is unknown at the moment, but Maradona had successful surgery on a brain blood clot earlier in November and was being treated for alcohol dependency.
Maradona most notably played for Spanish giants Barcelona and Italian side Napoli during his club career throughout the 1980s, winning two Serie A titles with the latter.
On the international stage, Maradona captained his Argentina side to a World Cup title in 1986, putting on one of the finest performances ever seen at the competition, recording five goals and five assists while playing every minute of every game.
He scored 34 goals in 91 international appearances for Argentina, including another trip to the 1990 World Cup Final.
Maradona long suffered from substance abuse issues; particularly cocaine. He was banned from playing for 15 months in 1991 after a positive drug test and in 1994, was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a test for ephedrine.
He moved onto coaching after his retirement in 1997, but continued to deal with drug issues.
A report from Sky News earlier this month revealed that Maradona was “not well psychologically” following his birthday on Oct. 30 where he was “very sad for a week” and “didn’t want to eat.”
