A fan with a poster outside the clinic in Buenos Aires on Monday

Diego Maradona, a footballer beyond the imagination, let alone emulation of contemporary players, is critically unwell. From the time he first emerged as an international, aged 16, in 1977 his admirers have feared that he might prematurely become the richest man in the cemetery. He is not quite 44.

The former Argentina captain was admitted to the Suizo Clinic in Buenos Aires on Sunday evening suffering with heart, hypertension and breathing difficulties after watching his former club Boca Juniors play. As he struggles to hold on to life in intensive care amid allegations that his problems were again drug-induced, we should reflect once more on the fantasies that he gave to mankind’s favourite sport — and did so in the face of unrelenting physical abuse from fellow professionals. Could Rembrandt have painted in the dark?

Many will once more leap to assert sanctimoniously that Maradona has been the victim of self-destruction. Yes, of course the chequered downward spiral of his all-too-public private life has been wretchedly overloaded with vain indulgence, greed, unstable temperament: all those characteristics which are often rampant among those who reach the giddy heights of fame and fortune having climbed from the humblest background.

Yet that has been the second cause of the possibly inevitable corruption of a glorious talent. The first fangs of destruction have been the villains on the field, who tackled him from the waist down a hundred times a season. Then the timid, incompetent referees who cravenly permitted this; the governing body, Fifa, who watched and gave little protection; the hounding media; the attempted political exploitation by those in high places, whether Buenos Aires or Naples.

Maradona was twice banned for drug abuse, each time with 15-month suspensions, in 1991 and during World Cup ’94. A saint, however, would have crumpled under the injustices that have been heaped upon him. Consider, for example, his debut in World Cup ’82: a first-round match for Argentina against Belgium at Nou Camp. In the first three minutes of that match he was fouled three times.

In the second match, against Italy, he was relentlessly harried by the notorious Claudio Gentile. Against Brazil, he had his legs swept away by full-back Junior without penalty. And ultimately, his emotions at breaking point, he was sent off by the Mexican referee for a crude foul.

Despite this, Maradona sits alongside those three other peerless performers, Pele, Alfredo di Stefano and Johann Cruyff as the finest players there have ever been. And of the four, Maradona was perhaps the finest spectacle of beauty in motion. What Maradona won — two league titles and the Uefa Cup with Napoli, World Cup ’86 and runners up ’90 — matter not compared with what he gave to the game. For that, we should be enduringly grateful.