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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentines lined the streets of Buenos Aires on Thursday to say goodbye to the great soccer player Diego Maradona, whose coffin lay in the presidential palace of the Casa Rosada draped in an Argentine flag and his famous no. 10 t-shirt.
Maradona, Argentina’s favorite son whose life was clouded by the fight against addiction, died at age 60 after a heart attack at his home on Wednesday. Large crowds are expected to pay their respects as part of three days of national mourning.
By early Thursday, thousands of people had already formed a meandering line through the streets near the central Plaza de Mayo after a night of mourning and memories. Some fights broke out when fans tried to enter the palace to see their hero.
“Maradona for me is the biggest thing that happened to me in my life. I love him as much as my father and it’s as if my old man had died,” said Cristian Montelli, 22, a fan of the former club of the Boca Juniors star with tears in the eyes. his eyes.
“If I die young, hopefully upstairs I can play ball and watch a Boca game with him,” added Montelli, who had a tattoo of Maradona’s face on his leg, after seeing the coffin.
Maradona’s body lay in a wooden coffin with the blue and white national flag and an Argentina soccer jersey with the number 10 that had been part of his nickname “D10S”, a pun on “god”, the word Spanish for God.
Fans held back by a barrier threw soccer jerseys, flowers and other items into the coffin as they attempted to approach the player, who was a hero in Argentina and beyond, both on and off the pitch despite his well-documented flaws. .
“He was someone who touched the sky with his hands but never lifted the ground,” President Alberto Fernández said Wednesday.
Great athletes and world leaders, including Argentine-born Pope Francis, paid tribute to Maradona. Fans from Naples in Italy, whose club he played for, India mourned his passing. In the Diario AS of Spain, the headline on the front page read “D10S has died.”
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to mourn him, leaving flowers and messages at his childhood home and at the former Boca Juniors soccer club.
Diego, Pelusa, or simply God, as Maradona was known, had a long career that included leading the South American nation to World Cup glory in 1986. Pelusa, which means fluff in Spanish, referred to the prominent mane Maradona’s playing days.
“Diego belongs to the people, Diego belongs to Argentina, Diego belongs to the country,” said Darío Lozano, waiting in line to see the coffin.
The 1986 tournament included a quarter-final match against England where Maradona scored two of the most well-known World Cup goals in history – an illicit “Hand of God” goal and another that followed an incredible dribble.
Maradona battled various health problems over the years as a result of his addictions. Earlier this month, he was hospitalized for symptoms including anemia and dehydration and underwent emergency surgery for a subdural hematoma, a blood clot in the brain.
“I think today everyone felt that something had died, their childhood died, their mother died, their father died, that’s how he feels,” said another fan, Mauro Giménez.
“You can’t explain how Diego made you feel when he played,” added Giménez, dressed in a yellow Boca Juniors jersey. “You had to be a footballer, have passion and then you knew what Diego was. Happiness, sadness, rebellion.”
(Reporting by Miguel Lobianco and Maximilian Heathl Additional reporting by Nicolas Misculin and Cassandra Garrison; written by Adam Jourdan; edited by Rosalba O’Brien, Daniel Flynn and Angus MacSwan)
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