Gustavo Bou on his tribute to Diego Maradona

New England Revolution fans will surely be happy after the team’s performance against Orlando City SC. The Revs are now in the Eastern Conference Finals but Gustavo Bou and the rest of the soccer world still is reeling after the tragic passing of Diego Maradona.

Maradona is one of the best to ever play the game and many would say that he is in fact the greatest soccer player of all time. In his club career, he scored 259 goals while also scoring 34 on the international level for Argentina and led the country to a World Cup in 1986.

In the quarterfinals of the ‘86 World Cup, Maradona had his most well known performance of his career. Going up against England, Maradona scored two goals. The first was the well known “Hand of God” goal where Maradona was not called for an obvious handball. Then four minutes later Maradona would score what goes down as the greatest individual goal of all time.

Prior to the game down in Florida, Bruce Arena spoke to the media and mentioned how the news of the 60-year-olds passing had hit Bou “real hard.”

Along with most professional soccer leagues, MLS paid tribute to the late Argentine. Bou was seen in warmups wearing a Maradona warm up shirt.

Even with a heavy heart, Bou had a great game. He ended up scoring two goals and was one of the best players on the field.

Bou’s first goal was one of his more emotional ones. After scoring, Bou went towards the sidelines, grabbed an Argentinian flag and fell to his knees.

After the win, Bou was asked about Maradona’s passing.

He said. “First of all I’m very happy to be in a [Eastern Conference] final. I’m really happy and proud of the team for all our efforts this year. We know that it was a very tough year for all of us, with many sacrifices. All our efforts this year are coming to fruition today. I’m very happy. I’m happy to be able to help my teammates get the win and I feel fortunate to have scored two goals. I’d also like to congratulate [Turner] because that was a decisive penalty kick in the final minutes. That helped give us some strength to finish the game the best way possible. I think everyone in the world of football was hurt and saddened by Maradona’s death. I wanted to pay homage to Maradona. I hope he sees it and I’m sure he saw it because he loved the sport. He’s a reason why a lot of people in Argentina love this sport as well.”

It was a touching tribute that will be seen across the globe and shows just how much of an impact Maradona had on the game.