Paul Gascoigne Gloriously Shuts Down Peter Shilton Over Diego Maradona Goal

A laughing Paul Gascoigne cheekily shut down Peter Shilton during a live TV interview as he paid tribute to Diego Maradona.

As Gazza told stories of sharing a football pitch with Argentine icon Maradona, who died on Wednesday aged 60, he couldn't resist a dig at his former England teammate Shilton's expense.

"I know a lot of people go on about the hand of God," said Gascoigne about the handball goal scored past Shilton at the 1986 World Cup. "It made Peter Shilton anyway!

"Shilts, it made you that goal."

Shilton, part of the remote interview with Gazza, sits stone-faced as Gascoigne and Good Morning Britain presenters Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid howl with laughter.

"Thanks for that Gazza," Shilton responds. "I did play for another 20 years on after that...".

Gascoigne's reference to "a lot of people" going on about that goal could well be a reference to Shilton. The 71-year-old England keeper has borne a lengthy grudge against Maradona after he leapt above Peter and used his hand to poke the ball into the net in Mexico.

The goal counted and Argentina went 1-0 up in the World Cup quarter-final. Less than five minutes later, Maradona scored the 'goal of the century' dribbling past half the England team - including Shilton - to score.

It was understandably a massive controversy as England excited the tournament. But plenty of Shilton's teammates, such as 1986 Golden Boot winner Gary Lineker, let go of their anger around the incident a long time ago.

Shilton, however, has harboured a long-burning resentment. He wrote in a Daily Mail column after Maradona's death that: "It seems he had greatness in him but sadly no sportsmanship."

Fair enough; Shilton the only one who knows what it feels like to have a 'goal' scored against him by Argentina's 5ft 5in No 10 using his hand.

But his refusal to let it go has arguably damaged his own standing among modern football fans. The prolonged controversy has overshadowed Shilton's illustrious career, which involved a record 125 England caps and two European Cups wins.

At least Gascoigne can see the funny side of it - even if Shilts, quite definitively, cannot.

Featured image credit: ITV/Twitter

Topics: Football News, Maradona, Football, Diego Maradona, England, Argentina, Paul Gascoigne

Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a writer at SPORTbible who’s previously strung words together for FourFourTwo, Boxing News, The Guardian and, yes, Cruise International (it’s about big ships, not Tom). Interests range from football and boxing to real sports like WWE and darts. He is not a cage fighter.

@otheralexreid