Diego Maradona's life is set to be explored in an upcoming HBO documentary, with the film's director saying the legend of the game was crying for help at one point in his career.
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The film focuses mainly on the star's playing career, with the majority of the movie centring around his playing years between 1984 and 1991.
The film's director, Asif Kapadia, chose Maradona as the subject of his latest film in keeping with his successful run of documentaries that focus on infamous characters like Amy Winehouse and Senna.
"To make a movie there's got to be drama, there's got to be something: It's not just about being brilliant at something, it's also about what's going on in your personal life," Kapadia told CNN this year.
Diego Armando Maradona's life, while studded by genius and pure talent, played out like a Greek tragedy for the whole world to see towards the end of the 1980s.
He was born in 1960 and raised in the favelas on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
From a young age Maradona was a gifted soccer player, at 15 years old he debuted in the premier Argentinian soccer league. .
He stayed in Argentina playing as part of the Argentine and Boca Juniors teams until signing with Barcelona.
There he would only stay for two years, plagued by injury, hepatitis and a season ending fight.
The fight started after players from Bilbao provoked Maradona using xenophobic comments about his native ancestry.
In response, Maradona headbutted one player, elbowed another in the face and kneed another in the head - knocking him out cold.
Over half of Spain was watching the match, the Spanish King Juan Carlos was at the game and 100,000 fans were inside the stadium.
He wouldn't play another game for the club, moving on to Napoli.
With Napoli one of the poorest city's in the Europe and plagued by violence, Maradona was their hero, elevating the club to its most successful era in its history.
Then the 1986 World Cup came around, Maradona led the Argentinians to a historic title win, even it was marred by the now infamous hand of god incident.
While he led both teams to success, his isolation and hard partying started to get the better of him and he tested positive for cocaine in 1992.
Australian Associated Press