Albert Gea/Reuters
It was nothing more, really, than a ruffle of the hair and a kiss on the cheek. There was no pomp or circumstance that day in 1994, no words of wisdom whispered in the ear or sweeping gesture made for the crowd. Diego Maradona left the field, and Ariel Ortega replaced him on it. But that was all it took. The torch, it was decided, had been passed.
Ortega was not the first player to be labeled the new Maradona. That honor, according to common consensus, fell to the former Boca Juniors forward Diego Latorre, and he certainly would not be the last.