"If they don't sell, I'm retiring" - The amazing story of how Sunderland AFC almost signed Diego Maradona | OneFootball

The Argentine legend was nearly bound for Roker Park

In the vast catalogue of football’s great contingencies, few are as astonishing - and as relatively undocumented - as the time Diego Maradona nearly signed for Sunderland.

It was 1977, and Maradona, only 17 years old, was already dazzling Argentine audiences with his hypnotic footwork and impudent swagger.

And in an extraordinary twist of fate, it was the Wearside club - not Barcelona, Napoli or Boca Juniors - that first made a serious move for him.

Sunderland’s failed signing of Diego Maradona

This story, revealed years later by Maradona’s biographer Daniel Arcucci and brought to wider attention in a History Channel documentary ahead of the 2018 World Cup, reads like footballing folklore.

The Black Cats had scouted Maradona while he was still at Argentinos Juniors, long before the rest of Europe caught wind of his genius. And, remarkably, Maradona was interested. Not just interested, in fact, but desperate.

“If they don’t sell me to Sunderland, I’m retiring,” he is reported to have said - part petulant prodigy, part prisoner of his country’s political climate.

The problem wasn’t the money, or the lack of imagination on Sunderland’s part. It was politics. Argentina in 1977 was governed by a military dictatorship that regarded football - and particularly its emerging talents - as national assets, not for international export.

Maradona was declared ‘untransferrable,’ one of a select group of players the junta refused to let leave the country. Consequently, Sunderland’s audacious attempt came to nothing.

Maradona stayed at Argentinos Juniors and would eventually move to Boca Juniors in 1981, before joining Barcelona in 1982.

Yet it’s not hyperbole to say that this could have changed everything. Maradona, who would go on to make 588 senior appearances and score 312 goals in a glittering, controversial career, might have first lit up European football not in Catalonia or Campania, but at Roker Park.

The potential transformation of Sunderland’s trajectory - and perhaps English football more broadly - is impossible to ignore.

Maradona's other English football links: Sheffield United and Leeds United

The Black Cats weren’t the only unlikely suitor. Yorkshire, too, played its part in the Maradona origin story.

In 1978, Sheffield United manager Harry Haslam travelled to Argentina and attempted to sign the teenage sensation for £200,000. The Blades balked and chose to sign Alex Sabella instead. They were relegated shortly after.

Nearly a decade later, in what was likely more a publicity stunt than serious ambition, Leeds United’s managing director, Bill Fotherby, held exploratory talks about bringing Maradona to Elland Road. The move never materialised, but it adds another curious footnote to the Maradona-in-England saga.

What actually unfolded, of course, the stuff of legend. Maradona went on to Boca, Barcelona, and reached immortality at Napoli. He captained Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986, creating some of football's most iconic moments.

His on-field genius was matched only by his off-field volatility, but his name remains synonymous with artistry, rebellion, and devotion to the game.

Still, the idea of him donning Sunderland’s red and white stripes lingers - an improbable fantasy grounded in truth. It’s a reminder that football history, like life, can pivot on the thinnest of margins.

A transfer approved, a political climate less rigid, a teenager allowed to pursue his ambitions, and perhaps the Black Cats would have hosted not merely a promising footballer, but the inception of an unprecedented footballing legacy.