Surbiton’s parlour walls boast many fines works of art… but also this, which graces our landing at home. I painted the footballer (who was buried today in Buenos Aires following his untimely death) a few years after the infamous Hand of God goal, and entered it into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1992, replete

Surbiton’s parlour walls boast many fines works of art… but also this, which graces our landing at home.

I painted the footballer (who was buried today in Buenos Aires following his untimely death) a few years after the infamous Hand of God goal, and entered it into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1992, replete with Argentina shirt.

To be fair, the title – Maradona and Child – was better than the actual acrylic and board painting (seen in full on the right).

Although I’d toiled on the footballer’s face and that of a suitably medieval-looking Baby Jesus, I was running out of artistic puff when it came to the Argentinian’s fingers and elbows, which had been intended to convey some kind of message about Hands and God.

Needless to say, the blinkered philistines judges at the RA couldn’t find wallspace for a modern-day masterpiece that was clearly well ahead of its time.

I’d seen Maradona the year before when I was in Buenos Aires and went to watch Boca Juniors play at the Boca Stadium, in one of the city’s rougher suburbs. Diego had his own VIP box at the football ground, from where he waved to adoring fans and ate biscuits and doughnuts.

Anyway, here it hangs in Surbiton to this day – a modest painted tribute to a flawed, but gifted, footballer.