Talent Bridge Case Study: Maradona

It’s hard these days to get our minds off the Coronavirus crisis, which is becoming overwhelming. To battle that, I use this extra free time to watch documentaries and study famous people. The other day, I was watching one about Maradona, arguably one of the best football players of all time. I already knew quite a bit about Maradona, but the documentary revealed how afflicted he was and how difficult it was for him to handle fame and success.

Maradona (TB analysis) is a Yin Metal Master Element. Right next to ME, he has Yang Fire, which creates a special combination that we wrote about before. Yin Metal people naturally seek a spotlight, but when the Yang Fire accompanies it, that desire becomes quite overwhelming. He loved being in the center of attention, but he discovered quite early that such popularity comes with a price, and very soon he started to use drugs to cope with the pressure coming from fans and media. Maradona was not mature enough during his peak popularity. He behaved childishly and naively and had no one close to warn him about his lifestyle and poor life choices. Such an innocent personality, combined with an intense craving for an audience, can only lead to trouble.

Maradona’s Creativity Talent Bridge

The Creativity Talent Bridge is the most dominant in his BaZi Chart, indicating that he used his intelligence on the football pitch more than his physical strength.

He is a weak Yin Metal, but during his peak performance in the mid-1980s, he was in an Ox period, which strengthened his Metal and gave him physical stamina. He suffered a lot of injuries, which got worse once he got out of Ox. As a result, now, although still relatively young, in his early 60s, he can barely walk. He was not built for such physical pressure; therefore, his career was relatively short.

His Chart is full of special setups that can potentially lead to addictive behavior. The Yang Fire Dog pillar represents nightlife and sexual promiscuity. This pillar indicates that the person might be attracted to nightlife activities, such as clubs, bars, dancing, and drinking, and that this is closely tied to the entertainment industry. For example, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury had this pillar as well; their sex & drug lifestyles were notoriously wild, especially during their youth. One of Maradona’s favorite activities was singing in bars; he obviously craved an audience and entertainment, even in his free time. He couldn’t get enough of the spotlight.

His strong Pioneer Talent also led him to misbehave, overindulge, and develop addictions. His Competitor Talent was acting as Supertalent, which, when negative, represents over-socializing and uncontrolled money spending.

As we can see, his addiction and misbehavior are not surprising; he had too many indicators. On top of that, he had a somewhat naive personality and a poor general education and understanding of life. People around him used him; once he stumbled and lost money and glory, he was left all alone.

Maradona is now in the Water Dragon phase, which has a cooling effect on his Chart. As a result, he is a little bit wiser and calmer these days.