When Diego Maradona signed for Barcelona in the summer of 1982, it was a world-record fee of 7.2 million euros.
It was a big gamble by then-president Jose Luis Nunez, who fought against the whole of Argentina to sign the player. The Argentine Football Federation (AFA) did all that they could to try and prevent the transfer from going through, but by the end of the saga, Maradona was heading to Spain.
Maradona's two seasons at Barcelona were successful, winning a Copa del Rey, a Supercopa de Espana and Copa de la Liga. However, his career at Barcelona will perhaps be remembered more for his off-field problems than his achievements on the pitch.
In both seasons, Maradona missed numerous games. The first was mainly due to hepatitis, though many think it was actually a venereal disease, and the second was due to a serious injury sustained from a challenge by Andoni Goikoetxea.
It was in Barcelona that Maradona got involved with drugs, a problem that would remain with him for the rest of his life. His partying lifestyle would also cause issues, and it is widely believed that Cesar Luis Menotti moved training sessions to the afternoon so that players would report on time and will have recovered from partying the night before.
These problems, however, did not go unnoticed and the board finally decided to sell the Argentine at the end of his second season in Spain.
The straw that broke the camel's back came in the 1984 Copa del Rey final against Athletic Club, which ended in a mass brawl between players from both teams. Maradona was at the forefront, and the image that was presented of him that day in the presence of the King of Spain finally drove the club to sell him to Napoli.
Whilst Maradona did display many moments of quality at Barcelona, it was not enough to win a LaLiga or European title.