'Hero and hustler' Maradona in Cannes spotlight

Between 1984, when he was welcomed to the city by 70,000 fans, to 1991 when he failed a drug test because of his cocaine habit, Maradona's magic left foot won the club two Serie A Italian championships, while his "hand of God" goal put England out of the World Cup in 1986.

But Kapadia said he was just as interested in Maradona after his fall.

"After two films about people who tragically died young I wanted to test myself with somebody who is still around. It's a different type of story - of what happens when you get older if you're a star."

Like Senna and Winehouse, Maradona is "another person who felt like he was fighting a system", Kapadia said.

"This is the third part of a trilogy on child geniuses and fame, and the effect it can have, and what they mean to their country and what they mean to people," he told The Guardian.

Ravaged hero

Maradona's status as "half man, half God" has drawn numerous directors to his life story.

Two-time Cannes winner Emir Kusturica, who tackled him in 2008's Maradona by Kusturica, identified three Maradonas: "The football teacher, the politically incorrect citizen, the family man."

Italian Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino created an unforgettable image of the ravaged hero in Youth, his movie on ageing, with an overweight Maradona lookalike in an oxygen mask kicking a tennis ball.

That tragic but defiant figure is the heart of a new Maradona play in Paris based on a book by Argentinian writer Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, where this "demi-god tries to escape destiny for something worse".

The big-budget Amazon series Maradona - which will go out later this year - follows the "Golden Boy" from the cradle through the highs and lows of his career at Sevilla, Barcelona and Napoli, with a series of actors playing Maradona through the ages.

All eyes at Cannes will be on how the hugely unpredictable icon performs before the eyes of the world, having made headlines at the last World Cup in Moscow with his antics in the stands.

Never one to avoid the grand gesture, he dedicated a recent victory of the Mexican club he manages, Dorados de Sinaloa, to Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who has just survived a coup attempt.

Maradona had previously fallen asleep during one of Maduro's speeches and had to be awakened when the cameras turned to him when the president praised him.

Agence France-Presse