In my opinion the best player of my lifetime by about a million miles. In my mind only Pele challenges him as the greatest of all time, but Pele was just before my time.
Maradonna may have cheated (quite a bit), but he never had the protection (or the playing surfaces) that Messi etc get now. A tackle round the throat was considered only borderline then but the guy was so strong and the ball stuck to him like it was glued to his foot.
We never would have won that quarter final, even without the hand of God, he was just too good for us. As much as that goal pissed me off, 4 minutes later you couldn't help applauding the brilliance of the guy.
It shouldn't really matter to me that he died today, He wasn't likely to do anything on the footy field again (like he hasn't for the last nearly 30 years) but I do remember how I felt watching him play- although I never saw him in the flesh, I was fortunate to watch him in games like the semi final against Belgium, on TV live and despite loathing him for the hand of god, you had to admire what a brilliant footballer he could be! So him dying does make me sad.
Flawed personality or not, R.I.P. mate, you gave me some happy memories!