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Diego Maradona’s death brought Argentina almost to a standstill on Thursday as the nation turned its gaze to the Casa Rosada presidential palace, where thousands of people lined up to parade, slowly, reverently, one by one, in front of the footballer’s iconic coffin. .
Tears and sobs could be heard from mourners of all ages and classes who had gathered since dawn to pay their respects to Maradona while his body lay in state. Among the laments, soccer chants sounded, the main one of them: “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Die-go! Diego!”
Maradona’s body was held in a wooden coffin covered with the blue and white national flag and a stripe of Argentina with the number 10 that had been part of his nickname “D10S” – a set of God, the Spanish word for “god”. Fans threw flowers, soccer jerseys and rosaries at the coffin as health workers outside distributed water to large crowds under a punishing southern spring sun as they waited their turn to enter.
The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, clarified his agenda after declaring three days of national mourning this Wednesday, and accompanied the Maradona family in the Casa Rosada.
“He was someone who touched the sky with his hands but never took his feet off the ground,” Fernández said after Maradona’s death, reflecting the player’s gift for captivating hearts at home and abroad.
A tribute to Diego Maradona
The gigantic line to enter the palace began to form outside the presidential palace Wednesday night and stretched across 20 blocks at noon, raising questions about whether the hero’s farewell would be finished by late afternoon. Another of Argentina’s favorite sons, Pope Francis, sent a special gift to the Maradona family: a blessed papal rosary that was hand-delivered to Maradona’s daughter, Giannina, at the intimate family wake early Thursday for the morning before the presidential palace opened. the public.
Maradona’s ex-wife, Claudia Villafañe, and her daughters with Maradona, Dalma and Giannina, as well as her children from other relationships, Jana and Dieguito Maradona, were present at the small wake.
Top athletes and world leaders, including Pope Francis, paid tribute. Fans from Naples to India mourned his passing. In the Diario AS de España, the headline on the front page simply read: “D10S has died.”
Among those who attended the Casa Rosada on Thursday was Cristián Montelli, a 22-year-old Boca Juniors fan with Maradona’s face tattooed on his leg. “I love him as much as my father and it’s like my father has died,” Montelli said. “If I die young, hopefully upstairs I can play ball and watch a Boca game with him.”
Another Boca fan and colleague, Mauro Giménez, expressed a similar feeling of grief: “I think today everyone felt that something had died, their childhood died, their mother died, their father died, that’s how it feels.” The words, he added, could not explain what it had meant for his fans to see Maradona on the pitch: “You had to be a footballer, have passion and then you knew what Diego was: happiness, sadness, rebellion.”
Reuters contributed to this report
