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He described the Cuban leader Fidel Castro as his “second father”, and in his life full of metaphors, the last was that Diego Maradona died the same day as the Cuban leader.
He was a friend of Venezuelan Hugo Chávez and played soccer with former Bolivian president Evo Morales: Diego Maradona’s youthful rebellion became over time a fascination for the Latin American left in power. (Read: Mourning in football! Diego Maradona passed away)
“We always had a very good relationship, a very good friendship. From the first day you came here with your girl ”in 1987, Castro reminded Maradona in an interview in 2005 that the same soccer idol did for his television program“ La Noche del 10 ”.
Castro gave him his olive green jacket and recalled that in that first meeting, 18 years earlier, he had given him his autographed military cap. Maradona showed the tattoo on his left leg: an image of Fidel. “Wow, it’s an honor,” said the surprised interlocutor.
The interview took place a year after Maradona finished a recovery treatment for his addictions in Cuba that began in 2000, with many comings and goings. “Fidel opened the doors for me when in my country many clinics closed them to me,” he thanked the ’10’.
They had met on July 28, 1987, the year after Diego’s World Cup consecration in Mexico-1986, when he was awarded “best athlete of the year”, chosen in a poll by the Cuban agency Prensa Latina. (You can read: This is how the last days of Diego Maradona were)
The ’10’ was not a man of the left and two Argentine journalists, Carlos Bonelli and Pablo Gionto, had to mediate to convince him to go to the Caribbean country to receive the award.
There would be other visits and a decade later, Diego tattooed Che Guevara on his arm, 30 years after the death of the Argentine-Cuban guerrilla. When Castro died in 2016, Maradona attended funerals.
“The greatest died, Fidel Castro left us. I was seized by a terrible cry because it was like a second father. I lived in Cuba for four years and Fidel called me at two in the morning to talk about politics or sports, ”Maradona declared at the time. (You can read: The contrast between Diego and Maradona)
“The ALBA train”
In 2015, days before the arrival in Cuba of “Pelusa” to record the program “De Zurda” on Telesur, the Latin American multi-state network for which he was a commentator in two World Cups, Castro sent him a letter.
“Thanks to my conversations with you in the brightest years of our unforgettable friend (the late Venezuelan president) Hugo Chávez, I deduced that the meeting in Mar del Plata could not be forgotten. Hugo reminded the United States that there was another America, ”Castro wrote in the January 11, 2015 letter.
He was referring to the IV Summit of the Americas held in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata in November 2005 and in which Latin American presidents prevented the formation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), promoted by the US president George W. Bush. (Also read: The best goal in the history of football)
Under the slogan “No to the FTAA”, thousands of militants filled a stadium in Mar del Plata. Many had arrived from Buenos Aires on the “ALBA Train”, including Maradona himself, who was by Chávez’s side throughout the event. Evo Morales also traveled, who shortly after would be elected president of Bolivia.
Maradona was invited several times to Caracas and only had words of praise for “the commander.” “I am with Chávez to death,” he said.
On the fifth anniversary of the death of the Venezuelan president in 2018, the former footballer dedicated a message to him on Instagram. “The most beautiful memory in the world is when (Chávez) grabbed my hand in Mar del Plata, and told me: ‘You stay by my side …'”, he wrote.
His support lasted with President Nicolás Maduro. As a coach of Gimnasia La Plata, he was seen going out to the field often wearing a cap with the colors of the Venezuelan flag, identified with Chavismo.
Football in heights
“Justice was served today,” the former player wrote in November 2019 when former President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva was released from prison after 19 months in prison. Some time before he published “Lula dear Diego is with you!”. (Also read: “Ciao Diego”, Napoli’s farewell message to Maradona)
True to his friendships, Maradona played a friendly match with Evo Morales in La Paz to support Bolivia’s right to play at the 3,600 m altitude of La Paz, which FIFA wanted to prevent.
“I regret the coup d’état orchestrated in Bolivia. Above all for the Bolivian people, and for Evo Morales, a good person who always worked for the most humble. #EvoElMundoEstaContigo ”, he expressed in 2019 on Instagram when the Morales government fell.
In Argentina, this “Peronist soldier” as he defined himself, aligned himself with former President Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015) and with the current President Alberto Fernández, whose government decreed three days of national mourning.
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