I've watched Maradona since the start and he has always been an odious little git. Immensely talented yes but an appalling personality. The macho posturing / fake spiritual posing is all to aggrandise himself or a shield to hide his various misdeeds. He has his entourage of hangers on, dealers and sycophants that allow him to behave in an appalling way.
I bet if I was in the stadium - ripped to the tits on coke and was swearing, making racist gestures or comments, the local police would crack me across the skull, drag me out and leave me in the cells for 2-3 days to cool off.
Comparing him to Best is unfair. Best suffered from a disease - in his case with a hereditary component, of alcoholism. He committed many misdeeds but these were usually part of a cycle of drinking, sobriety, relapse and depression. I've met several people over the years that met George and all said he was a lovely quiet shy man who struggled to accommodate being the worlds first sporting megastar. His worst misdeeds occurred when heavily drunk, not that I am trying to downplay their importance or justify them on that basis.
Maradona has behaved in an offensive way to his own countries media when he was acting as manager and has a reputation as a nasty piece of work. He claims to be a fan of Fidel Castro, be a staunch supporter of left wing causes but indulges in bigoted and racist comments.
He was happy to be a complicit tool of the right wing military junta that killed thousands of it's own people to repress dissent and claims his hand of god goal was revenge for the Falklands war.
While that war was going on he was having his own pitched battles at Barcelona - bringing great highs but also great lows too. - See below describing how and why he left Barcelona
The end of the 1983–84 season included a violent and chaotic fight Maradona was directly involved in at the 1984 Copa del Rey final at the Santiago Bernabéu against Athletic Bilbao.
After receiving another rough tackle by Goikoetxea which wounded his leg, being taunted with xenophobic insults throughout the match by Bilbao fans, and being provoked by Bilbao's Miguel Sola at full time as Barcelona lost 1–0, Maradona snapped.
He aggressively got up, stood inches from Sola's face and the two exchanged words. This started a chain reaction of emotional reactions from both teams. Using expletives, Sola mimicked a gesture from the crowd towards Maradona by using a xenophobic term.
Maradona then head-butted Sola, elbowed another Bilbao player in the face and kneed another player in the head, knocking him out cold.The Bilbao squad surrounded Maradona to exact some retribution with Goikoetxea connecting with a high kick to his chest, before the rest of the Barcelona squad joined in to help Maradona.
From this point, Barcelona and Bilbao players brawled on the field with Maradona in the centre of the action, kicking and punching anyone in a Bilbao shirt. The mass brawl was played out in front of the Spanish King Juan Carlos and an audience of 100,000 fans inside the stadium, and more than half of Spain watching on television.
Sixty people were injured, with the incident effectively sealing Maradona's transfer out of the club in what was his last game in a Barcelona shirt.
One Barcelona executive stated, "When I saw those scenes of Maradona fighting and the chaos that followed I realized we couldn't go any further with him."
That sort of chaos and disorder is not some mercurial genius with a minor flaw. it's the actions of a thug who welcomes protection from criminal elements to maintain his lifestyle choices.
However much he dresses himself in his countries flag, Maradona's malignant narcissism will eventually supercede his footballing achievements as it consumed his talents. He is the perpetual spoilt child who has never grown to be a man. Like any unruly child what he fears most is silence and being ignored and that is the best way to respond to this vile pond scum.