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- Veronica smink
- BBC News World, Southern Cone
Image source, fake images
Diego Armando Maradona’s death shocks Argentine society.
His last years – and in particular his last days – were plagued with health problems. But despite this, the news of the death of Diego Armando Maradona, due to a heart attack, caused a shock in Argentina.
That shock reveals the divine status that the soccer star had in his home country, where his supporters nicknamed him “D10S”, by the famous number on his jersey.
Gone are the many controversies that Maradona aroused throughout his life, from his friendship with questioned leaders such as Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro and Cuban Fidel Castro (who coincidentally died the same day, in 2016), to his excesses with food, drugs, alcohol and women.
This Wednesday, the majority of Argentines seem to have erased, at least momentarily, the memory of that controversial Maradona of recent years and, instead of that, what is lived is a kind of national catharsis around the figure ofl “Ten”.
Image source, Reuters
The grief and shock over the death of Maradona are evident in Argentina.
Image source, fake images
Hundreds of people took to the streets to honor Maradona.
While some journalists stand guard outside the exclusive gated community where the soccer player died, waiting to speak with the star’s relatives, many newscasts decided to broadcast from the humble neighborhood of Villa Fiorito, which saw the birth of “Pelusa”.
There the neighbors have mounted tributes, with candles and banners, and the older ones have shared with the press their memories of the first steps of little Diego Armando, the fifth of the eight Maradona brothers, who as a child caused admiration for his talent with a ball.
National duel
The pain over the loss of the icon is not only felt in the streets and in the endless list of footballers and coaches who share their grief through interviews and publications on social networks.
It also reaches the highest spheres of power. The country’s president, Alberto Fernández, a fervent soccer lover, announced that he suspended his duties and decreed three days of national mourning.
Image source, Reuters
The tributes to Maradona are repeated in various parts of Argentina.
Meanwhile, the mourning reached the Copa Libertadores, with the announcement that Boca Juniors, the Argentine club that had Maradona as its top star, will not play its game scheduled for this Wednesday against Inter from Brazil.
Conmebol announced through a statement that it accepted Boca’s request to postpone the match due to “the death of soccer star Diego Maradona and his close ties with the Argentine club.”
“Immortal Maradona”
Among the hundreds of thousands of comments that the death of Maradona has awakened around the world, one of the most widespread was that of Lionel Messi, whom many consider the football heir to the Ten.
“A very sad day for all Argentines and for football. He leaves us but does not go, because Diego is eternal,” he wrote on his Instagram profile, along with a photo that shows him with who his coach was between 2008 and 2010, when Maradona directed the national team.
That feeling of a “Eternal Diego” it is shared by many in this country.
“Maradona Immortal” titled his coverage of the death one of the main news channels here.
The renowned British journalist and writer John Carlin also titled the note he wrote in homage to Maradona in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.
Interviewed by Argentine media, Carlin spoke about the significance of this death.
Image source, Reuters
The Obelisk, in Buenos Aires, was chosen as a meeting point to honor Maradona.
“It’s like the death of a Pope”, compared.
For some in Argentina, the popular pain that Maradona’s death has generated is similar to that caused at the time by the death of former Argentine first lady Eva Perón, another icon of humble origins who many idolized as a mythical figure.
Image source, fake images
Many embrace and mourn their idol.
As in 1952, many Argentines spontaneously took to the streets this wednesday for meet and mourn your idol, a shared mourning that not even the coronavirus pandemic has managed to avoid.
The central point of the meeting is the Obelisk located in the center of the capital, the same place that witnessed one of the greatest celebrations that Argentina experienced, when the magic of Maradona led the country to conquer its second World Cup, in 1986 .
GETTY
The Argentine soccer legend, who led his country to victory in the 1986 World Cup, died Wednesday of cardiac arrest.
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4Sometimes he played in a World Cup.
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2Serie A titles won with Napoli, the only times the club has accomplished this feat.
Source: FIFA
Images of the World Cup in Mexico are broadcast over and over again on television, interspersed with images of the police transporting Maradona’s body to the morgue, where an autopsy will be performed.
Although the authorities have indicated that there are no indications that the death was violent, an investigation has been launched to determine the specific causes of death.
Legend
Meanwhile, in the last hours a kind of competition was unleashed to see where the final farewell of the star will take place.
Both the Casa Rosada -the presidential headquarters- as well as the Boca stadium and the Argentinos Juniors stadium (the first club for which Maradona played, in 1976) were made available to hold the wake, as well as the premises of the Association of the Argentine Soccer (AFA).
Image source, fake images
“Today soccer stops,” reflected journalist Víctor Hugo Morales, who famously described Maradona as a “cosmic kite.”
Finally, presidential sources confirmed that Maradona will be veiled at the Casa Rosada, starting Thursday.
“Today football stops. Diego is now at peace and finds those who he has loved most in his life, his father and mother,” said sports journalist Víctor Hugo Morales, who famously described Maradona as a “cosmic kite” during coverage of the World Cup in Mexico.
“No one can turn away, you have to be a very special being, have a heart of stone, so as not to feel that life has taken someone very precious, very dear, but who at the same time finds relief because they are going to the legend that Diego deserves“, he assured.
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