Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona has passed away. 

Maradona, who was born on October 30, 1960 at Lanus in Buenos Aires, died at the age of 60 after suffering a cardiac arrest on Wednesday.  

The former Argentina attacking midfielder and later manager had undergone a successful surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain earlier this month. 

He was expected to be receive treatment for his alcohol dependency, according to reports that followed his surgery.

Maradona is one of the greatest football players of all time and was the captain when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986 and he was in his top element in the global show.

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Maradona showed his football talent at the tender age of eight and joined Las Cebollitas and the team went on to clinch 136 successive games as well as a national championship.

He joined Argentinos Juniors aged 14 and made his first-division debut in 1976, 10 days before he turned 16 and after four months he joined the national team as the youngest Argentine to ever do so.  

He was however left out of the 1978 World Cup-winning squad as the coach felt he was still too young but the next year he led the national under-20 team to the Junior World Cup. 

The iconic player who is revered across the globe turned out for Barcelona and Napoli at the height of his club career and won two Serie A titles with the Italian soccer side.

The Argentinian scored 34 goals during his 91 appearances for his country and represented the South American nation in four World Cup tournaments.

PHOTO/COURTESY BRITANNICA

Maradona steered Argentina to the 1990 finals in Italy but they were clobbered by West Germany and later to the US in 1994 when he was sent home for failing a drug test.

He had a tough battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction during his later footballing years and was banned for 15 months after he tested positive for cocaine in 1991.

He hanged his pro football boots in 1997 aged 37 while turning out for the Boca Juniors and headed his national team in 2008 and left after a poor show in the 2010 World Cup.

Maradona was renowned for his prowess in controlling the ball and creating almost impossible scoring chances for himself and his teammates. 

At the time of his death, Diego Armando Maradona was coaching Gimnasia y Esgrima in his country’s top flight football scene.