What Diego Maradona did when he played against Nottingham Forest in 1983, players couldn’t cope

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In the late seventies and early eighties, Nottingham Forest were genuinely considered one of the greatest football teams in Europe.

The Reds claimed back-to-back European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980, led by the iconic Brian Clough who firmly put the football club on the map.

The class of 2024/25 are trying to get the Reds back into Europe this season and sit in third place in the Premier League table.

It would be great to see Forest lining up, the Champions League music blaring out over the tannoy and some of the world’s best players waiting to face the Reds on the grandest club stage once more.

In 1983, Forest came up against one of the best players to have ever played the game of football and he offered the club a flash of his world-class qualities during a pre-season outing.

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What Diego Maradona did when he played Nottingham Forest in 1983

Maradona was arguably the most naturally gifted footballer of all time, winning a glut of trophies that included the World Cup, UEFA Cup and a number of league titles.

However, the European Cup escaped him with his two years at Barcelona failing to see him land the biggest prize in club football.

His only outing against Forest came when the Reds played Barca during a pre-season friendly ahead of the 1983/84 campaign in the Camp Nou.

The game was played as part of the Joan Gamper Trophy, with Forest joining Dortmund and Anderlecht in taking part in the pre-season competition.

Several Forest players tried some unsavoury antics with Viv Anderson, most notably adopting a physical approach on the man who served Argentina with distinction during his career.

Maradona scored Barcelona’s second goal in the 73rd minute of a 2-0 win. Nottingham Sport called it a goal that only Maradona could score with the rain lashing down, yet the Argentine playing as if it was a perfectly fine day and surface.

On the basis of this video nasty from a Forest point of view, Maradona never played a competitive game against the Reds as it appeared the Reds could get nowhere near the legend of the game.

Forest star ended up with Diego Maradona’s shirt

Maradona risked the wrath of everyone in England in 1986 when his infamous handball goal seemingly tarnished his reputation forever.

Way before the VAR era, Maradona leaped higher than Peter Shilton to knock the ball into the net with his fist and send England packing from the World Cup.

Despite the frustrations of the England players, Forest man Steve Hodge spotted an opportunity and bagged himself the shirt of the legendary player.

That decision saw Hodge unpopular with some of his teammates but it was the BBC Radio Nottingham summariser who had the last laugh.

In 2022, he decided to cash in on Maradona’s shirt and bagged himself a cool £7.14 million from auctioning the shirt off.

As Maradona proved in the pre-season game against Forest, he had it all. As a player there was no doubting his ability and he still goes down as one of the best ever.

However, the 1986 incident was something that tarnished his legacy at least in the eyes of English men and women when it came to picking their best ever player.