'I've never seen anyone have such a beautiful affection with a football'

Four years after Diego Maradona's death, it's worth visiting this tribute by Gary Lineker, that captures the mesmerising talent in one beautiful story.

Lineker was speaking on air the day after Maradona died. He did what the best speakers do so naturally, he found an anecdote that explained the personality and the talent, without just saying ‘Maradona was so amazing’.

Generalities are boring. It’s stories that switch on an audience. I’ve helped a lot of people with eulogies, and that’s always my advice. Can you share a story that says what you want to say? Can you replace ‘she was so kind’ with ‘there was this one day when she … ‘

When we were making our film, ‘Ange & The Boss’ we had the challenge of encouraging our interviewees to speak in anecdotes. In our case, we wanted to know stories about the great Ferenc Puskas, who coached in Australia between 1989 and 1992. The type of sentence I said to interviewees more than any other was — ‘can you remember a specific example … do you have a story about that … is there a moment you and the other players remind each other about … what was the most memorable day …’ We actually have a story in the film a bit like Lineker’s. It involves Puskas standing in a lineup of players, aged 62, with a ball balanced on the top of his foot, steady as a rock, waiting to bang it in the top corner. Our players were brilliant at speaking in anecdotes. I honestly think we have the best and funniest player interviews of any football documentary I’ve seen.

Ange & The Boss - Puskas in Australia has it’s international premiere at the Paladino d’Oro Sport film festival in Palermo on 9th December. There are a couple of screenings in Thornbury Melbourne in December (5th and 21st) as well as an SMFC screening at the Astor on the 4th of December. (links below)

Here is the trailer for people who have missed earlier posts about our film.

And for paid subscribers, here is the transcript of Lineker’s lovely tribute,

Thanks for supporting my speeches project!

Best wishes

Tony Wilson