[ad_1]
The late World Cup hero was the most Argentine icon to his fans, both for his failures and for his unique talents on the field.
“Diego has not died, Diego has not died, Diego lives with the people and that’s the way things are ”.
The imposing Obelisk of Buenos Aires, the monument built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary, has long been the meeting point for Argentines to celebrate.
It was there, on June 29, 1986, that hundreds of thousands of ecstatic fans flocked to commemorate the final World Cup victory over West Germany, led by Diego Armando Maradona.
It was fitting, then, that the Obelisk was one of the places chosen to commemorate the life of a man who touched Argentine hearts perhaps more than any other individual in recent memory.
Goal 50 Revealed – World’s Top 50 Players
Despite the difficulties that the coronavirus continues to impose and the confinement measures in public events, thousands of people knew instinctively once the news was known that Diego Maradona had died at age 60 on Wednesday that they should go to the center of Buenos Aires.
Others paid homage in the stands of La Bombonera, the iconic Boca Juniors home where Maradona had once starred and now has become a sanctuary of ‘God’, (the club’s Libertadores match against Internacional was postponed with respect to the deceased legend), while others He went to the place where it all began, the Argentinos Juniors stadium in La Paternal where Diego took his first steps in professional football and which, in 2004, took the name of his favorite son.
Many more in the coming days will pass alongside the deceased legend while he is in the state at the Casa Rosada, the seat of the Argentine government, from where President Alberto Fernández, a fan of Argentinos Juniors, delivered a moving tribute to his idol little after the Tragic news was heard and 72 hours of national mourning was decreed.
Yet wherever these impromptu remembrance ceremonies take place, one rule of thumb seemed to hold: This is a time of sadness, but also of celebration, as a nation comes together to remember its wayward but fiercely proud and rebellious standard bearer. Patriotic of the great soccer player and figure larger than life that he was.
❤️ Fans pay homage to Maradona on the outskirts of La Bombonera 🏟 pic.twitter.com/RbyVzrJMBL
– Goal in Spanish (@Goal_en_espanol) November 25, 2020
Buenos Aires meets to celebrate the life of Diego Maradona 🇦🇷
🎥 @DanEdwardsGoal pic.twitter.com/0fqUgaGzxl
– Goal (@goal) November 25, 2020
“Ole, ole ole ole, Diego, Diego!” resonated with the masses, many of whom were too young to have seen El Pibe de Oro in its prime, but who have grown up absorbing the stories of the diminutive hero as he took on the world.
Since the death of former President Néstor Kirchner, a close friend of Diego, in 2010, the country has not lost such an immense public figure; And as with the late politician, the cry was heard that Maradona had not died, but that he still lived in the heart of the town.
Maradona’s old adversaries, England and Brazil, were also remembered among the chants, which grew in volume as the evening progressed. At one point, a nearby electronic billboard was playing his iconic “Goal of the Century” in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup; the crowd booed all the agitated Englishmen the little genius left in his wake before joining together as one to shout “Gooooal” as the ball finally hit the back of the net.
The 38-year-old Boca Hernán fan was in the middle of a regular Wednesday when, through Twitter, he learned of the rumors that were confirmed shortly.
“I stopped what I was doing and came directly to the Obelisk,” he explained to Objective.
“I saw him play in 1995, in Boca, I also saw him when he retired at the River stadium, I also went to his farewell game and the last time I saw him in a stadium was in Boca, on March 10 (when Diego Gymnastics visited the Xeneize).
“It’s sad news, really, I wasn’t expecting it, I thought I was getting better, you know. Diego was always able to haggle everyone, we thought this would happen and it’s very sad. Horrible.
“It’s a shame, but hey, he’s going to live forever. Diego will always be with us ”.
Argentine soccer is famous for its tribal instincts. However, a regrettable ceasefire reigned on Wednesday.
The shirts and banners belonging to the beloved Xeneize de Maradona and the Argentine team were out of date; but so were those of River, Racing Club, Huracán, current club Gimnasia, Talleres and a kaleidoscope of other shocking colors, among them the yellow and black of the Uruguayan giants Peñarol.
“I didn’t hesitate, I put on the shirt,” said Fernando, a 40-year-old River fan. objective, decked out in the colors of the team that Maradona had so often delighted to torment over the years.
“I cried for two hours at home when I heard around noon and came here, I had no choice. I thought about [the shirt] but I thought, today we are here to pay our respects to football, regardless of the jersey. I am here to support God. It really is a moment of immense sadness.
“I see T-shirts from many places, banners too, and that’s how Maradona was, I think if you go anywhere in the world and say, Maradona, that’s it, it’s Argentina. Maradona is football and he is Argentina ”.
Julio, a colleague from River, who was working near downtown Buenos Aires when he heard the news, expressed similar sentiments.
“I was 20 years old when the 1986 World Cup was held, with my whole family, and I cannot forget that moment that he gave us, that moment of happiness,” said the 54-year-old. objective.
“We had come out of a war in 1982 [the Falklands/Malvinas conflict with the United Kingdom], we needed some cheer. Diego, like a hero with his team, gave us that happiness, and on top of that playing against the English was truly unforgettable.
“Diego is our identity, today we are known in the world, you would say Diego Maradona and everyone knew that you were Argentine … it is a hard moment because the soul, the soul is broken, it is our soul, the Argentine soul, and it is a Too bad I had to go like this. “
In the wake of Wednesday’s passing, many media outlets, particularly in the English-speaking world, chose to focus on what they termed Maradona’s flawed genius, suggesting that his magical ball prowess was somehow clouded by his checkered personal life and even more inexplicably, his struggle with addiction, a disease that haunted him throughout his adulthood.
Such an interpretation of Diego’s legacy would find little attention in Buenos Aires. It wasn’t perfect, not even for his most avid fans, and he caused himself and those closest to him great pain with many of the decisions he made, particularly after leaving the sport in the 1990s.
Yet it is Diego’s “flaws” that made him appear human in a way that many elite athletes, especially in the modern image-obsessed world, do not; and in turn his humanity that, paradoxically, elevated him to the status of deity.
The beginning; its joys; Its setbacks and its demons: everything can be understood intimately in a nation accustomed to crisis and recovery, the hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
“Diego is Argentine, he is ours, and that is what Messi lacks, Argentine blood,” Julio continued. “He was born below, absorbed all the essence of the Argentine paddock (informal street football).
“You can’t compare Maradona with Messi, you can’t, but he’s the best we have today and we have to take care of him like they did with Maradona. Please!”
“A very sad day for all Argentines and for football. He has left us but he has not gone, because Diego is eternal,” Messi himself wrote in tribute to his former Argentine coach. Julio, however, is convinced that once the tears are dry, the Barcelona magician has another more fitting tribute in mind.
“This World Cup that we have left with Messi, he will give it to Maradona, who wanted to see him as champion,” he added. “Let him do it for Maradona, and for all Argentines, because Maradona is Argentina.”
Scandalous, moving, and yet full of celebration for a life well lived, Buenos Aires was the host to a celebration worthy of the greats, and which, as you feel, would have met with their wholehearted approval.
[ad_2]
