British Maradona lookalike backs England to beat Argentina

Sid told the BBC he had allowed his hair to grow long and curly during the Covid lockdowns, making him look increasingly similar to the footballing great.

“People stopped me, saying ‘come over here, this is Maradona – look, it’s Maradona’ and I thought it was a joke but then it spiralled everywhere,” he said.

Strangers continued to ask for his photograph but his unexpected fandom peaked when he watched Argentina beat Italy 3-1 at Wembley.

“I wore my Argentina shirt, so I was actually looking to look like him. Argentinian fans were bowing, singing ‘Diego Diego Diego’ and I got that all afternoon,” he said.

Sid described Maradona as one of the few true “Galacticos” of the game and said he would “rather look like him than Peter Crouch”.

“There are geniuses. Maradona was one of them. What he could do with a football on a football pitch was simply beautiful to watch,” he said.

When asked if he replicated Maradona’s wild lifestyle off the pitch, Sid replies “absolutely”, before clarifying: “No, I don’t. I’m joking. My life is work and home.”