Maradona, a super patriot, hated embracing Brazilians. Now and again, however, he simply couldn’t stop himself.

“Ronaldo is the greatest striker of all time,” he said. “Without injuries, he would’ve been the greatest player of all time. He would’ve made the world forget about me and Pele.”

“Watching him was pure joy,” he said of Ronaldinho. “He made me feel like a kid on a ride that I never wanted to stop.”

At the maiden FIFA Club World Cup™ Maradona was waxing lyrical about another Brazuca. Manchester United, the 1999 Intercontinental Cup winners, had infamously dropped out of the FA Cup to focus on conquering the competition. Their hopes were all but obliterated in their second outing against Vasco da Gama.

Edmundo alertly intercepted a Gary Neville back-pass to lay the first on a plate for Romario, before the latter capitalised on another gaffe from the same player to make it two.

Then, after nice build-up play from Juninho Pernambucano and Jorginho, Gilberto rolled the ball into the feet of Edmundo, back to goal. Anticipating his marker would commit himself, ‘The Animal’ mercurially flicked the ball up and over his head and, as Mikael Silvestre slid helplessly across the Maracana grass, spun round and poked it home.

“I love that goal,” said Maradona. “It was a piece of genius that only a few players from each generation would have had the skill to pull off, and only a few players in history would have had the imagination to think of.”

Even the man who conceded it remembers the goal fondly. “Nobody likes conceding goals, but that’s the one that left me with the best memories,” said Mark Bosnich. “It was absolutely magnificent.”