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“A man of genius is unbearable, unless he possesses at least two things in addition: gratitude and purity” – Friedrich Nietzsche, on love, perseverance and going beyond good against evil.
Diego Maradona said that when you are on the moon and you return, things get difficult. “You get addicted to the moon and it is not always possible to go back down.”
Maradona turned 60 on October 30 and the tributes that came in from all corners of the world, from special issues to personal keepsakes, felt a bit like a celebration of a life that was almost over.
He had made a brief appearance on his birthday at the club he ran, Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, a sad image as a very overweight figure, who walked slowly, spoke as if he had trouble walking unaided and could not grab a gift. offered to him, as if the grip he once had was no longer there.
“The way they are parading it is almost a zoological exhibition,” someone pointed out and as if to echo the emotion, a close contact was confirmed that he said a few hours after his death: “Better this way. It was too painful to see his decline. “
Maradona was born and raised in Villa Fiorito, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and his skill with the ball was so evident from a young age that he got used to television cameras, interviews and leading the way early.
Left for the 1978 World Cup squad after playing some of the playoffs, the young Maradona often spoke of that exclusion as the first major frustration that would shape his life. But the following year he won the Youth World Cup and generations of his compatriots grew up with him, watching him play. Nobody told us about him; He was there. We watched his moves and plays unfold before our eyes.
It’s hard to convey how or why sharing nationality with an icon becomes so important. Why claiming him as ours for being born in the same country is such a strong glue for the notions of identity, culture and sport, but Maradona became an emblem of Argentinism, more than other sports stars or celebrities.
Gifted, without a doubt, and a genius by any definition of the concept, Maradona developed an almost superhuman ability to do with the ball what great artists do with a brush, composers with music. Argentine writer Juan Sasturain said: “He is an artist, because where there is nothing, he creates something.”
From a young age he was on television showing his skills and sharing his dream of winning a World Cup, of playing for Argentina. Some clips have become incredibly famous; some are filed among the many reels of each waking moment that seem to exist. His entire life was spent in full view of the adoring public, courtesy of the media that, as legendary commentator Victor Hugo Morales said Wednesday, saw a vending machine in Maradona.
His private birthday parties would be broadcast live; his disputes with his partners were filmed on phones and leaked. When children born out of wedlock were shown to be his, chat shows turned to discussing the issue.
He faced his demons publicly, speaking openly about his addictions, his recreational substance abuse, and the prescription drugs that accompanied him everywhere. Diego’s “medication” was always a large sports bag, guarded by his entourage of the day almost as carefully as the man himself.
“I am 45 years old and I am alive,” he had said on October 30, 2005, at an event I had the privilege of attending. He spoke from a stage at this exclusive party, a show dotted with football stars of the era and celebrities from around the world among several hundred of his closest friends. His statement was encouraged by spontaneous gasps of joy, the entire room chanting as if he were celebrating a goal, because by then he had already been dodging death as if he was dribbling opponents on a field.
The next 15 years saw him not only survive, but honor life, as the song goes. He had been on the brink of death from excessive consumption of pizza and champagne; endured a stomach stapling operation; he had seen psychiatric lows of epic proportions and time and time again he rose like a phoenix to reinvent himself, live life fully and continue to delight.
Be it a television show like no other or Argentina’s management in South Africa 2010, again, a task that no one believed he was capable of, but through which he became a darling of the world media, with the New York Times publishing an apology for not believing it. – Maradona seemed capable of not dying, regularly.
“You have defeated your shadows,” wrote the Uruguayan poet Mario de Benedetti, when he seemed to be on the verge of death, giving way to candlelight vigils and mass prayers around the world.
His gift as an intermediary of emotions, his art in the most noble and revered games, was his way to become a household name like no other. Polls repeatedly found him as “the most famous man in the world” or his goal against England (the second) in 1986, “the best goal in the world”.
It is a very Argentine trait to claim the most in the world; and in that sense Maradona was truly representative of his country, but his appeal was universal. Without question, he was recognized and graciously received wherever he went.
As his legendary status grew, his human side, so flawed, so painfully angry and confrontational, so complicated, seemed to morph into an increasingly grotesque character.
People spoke of a glint with their feet that their mind lacked, but I would refute it. Diego Maradona was one of the smartest and most cunning beings to ever grace the game. It was a perfect embodiment of the human capacity to be contradictory, to do and transmit the ugly and the beautiful at the same time, the good and the bad in the same line. His celebrity was not separate from his private self – he was painfully human in every way, but a superstar at all times.
Often regarded as a prima donna for being late for training, he was extremely hardworking. On your own terms. César Menotti always said that Maradona would stay training longer than anyone else and would practice what he felt was weak over and over again until he mastered it.
It is true that he slept at strange hours and perhaps he expected the world to follow his rhythm. Maybe we can finally say that you can rest, hush now. Diego is sleeping.
