Maradona: the Argentine who was much more than the greatest footballer in history dies

Some, for example, saw him as God; others, such as Diablo.

But Maradona was not just a footballer: he was a successful TV presenter, a controversial football coach and coach, an acid commentator in the internet age, a central player in world entertainment, a political activist and an example for millions of people. all over the planet.

Likewise, he was a hypermedia figure fallen from grace due to scandals, drug addiction, and sympathy for controversial leaders.

Maradona was born on October 30, 1960 in Villa Fiorito, a small and poor town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the fifth of eight brothers in a family that depended on his father’s work as a boatman.

Like his life, Maradona’s football triumphs had an epic degree that made him a hero of two closely related peoples and particularly dedicated to intense passions: the Argentine and the Neapolitan.

Representing both fans was that Maradona who exposed to the world not only a gifted left-handed, perhaps unrepeatable, but also a charisma to materialize historical claims in populations identified with defeat and exclusion.

This is how the “Pibe de Oro”, the “Pelusa”, the “Cosmic Kite” became “D10S”.

Maradona has won many important things in football. In order of relevance: a soccer world cup, two Italian championships, a European cup, two Italian cups, an Italian super cup, a Spanish king’s cup, an Argentine championship and a youth world cup, among other things.

In addition, he was the top scorer of the Italian league, three times top scorer in the Argentine tournament and a thousand times awarded as “the best of history”, “the best of the century”, “the best of the World Cup”.

His sporting triumphs have led him to be a UNICEF and FIFA ambassador, a “dream inspirational teacher” at Oxford University and coach of teams in Mexico, Belarus and the United Arab Emirates, among others, and the national team argentina.

Maradona’s talent gave football unprecedented creativity in the 1980s: with extraordinary physical and mental speed, impeccable motor skills, the 1.65m tall Argentine put the ball where the laws of physics did not seem to apply.

Had he not been a footballer, Maradona might have also worked for a circus.

His victories also counted on what in Argentina is known as “resistance”: a feeling of optimism, courage, almost daring, which gave with images of bleeding Maradona, muddy Maradona, wounded Maradona. But celebrate.

Many players in the history of football have won more than him. Some are considered physically and technically better. The Argentine, at times by his own decision, starred in alleged rivalries with the other “best in history”: Pele, Cruyff, Zidane, Ronaldo, Messi, etc.

Complex and relative debates, which in any case must take into account the following: unlike almost all the other superlatives, Maradona has achieved symbolic feats in the most famous sport in the world that have made him an extra-sporty figure, unique or, like the devotee of the Maradonian Church, divine.

His most famous feat was in a 1986 World Cup quarter-final match in Mexico against the English team. It had been four years since the British army had defeated the Argentine in the Malvinas / Falkland war and, in the great Azteca stadium, before the eyes of the world, Maradona had given the British a dose of malice and another of genius that Argentines celebrated on behalf of the 700 compatriots killed on the battlefield.

Evil was a target with the hand he himself baptized “the hand of God” and genius, a 52-meter run in 10 seconds with the ball and chain that left behind the Englishman who was then classified by FIFA as “the goal of the century”.

Days later, Argentina won their second World Cup. And Maradona became the leader of a people who, according to the narrative, do not give up.

Another of the feats that define Maradona’s almost mythological character took place between 1984 and 1990, the years in which he was at Napoli, a relatively small team until then which, according to the legend, represented the “poor” and “black” from the south in its historic rivalry with “rich” and “white” Italians from the north.

In the role of messiah, with four Italian titles and several games won amid political tension between Milan and Turin teams, Maradona gave Naples that glory that the south had not reached politically, militarily and economically after 150 years of contention.

With that antecedent, the Argentine team led by Maradona reached the World Cup final in Italy in 1990, which was played in Milan. The match, preceded by provocative statements by the parties, began with a series of insults by the captain to the Milanese audience during the anthems and ended with Germany’s victory in what they considered an “orchestrated fraud”.

It was around this time that Maradona, plagued by injuries and legal battles with clubs and former partners, revealed his other mood. Her reaction to criticism became aggressive, provocative, part of an alleged conspiracy against him. His private life has become a recurring topic in the tabloid media. And his routine, a drama.

His children out of wedlock, his drug addiction, his exit from the 1994 World Cup for doping, his quarrels with his daughters Dalma and Gianinna, his alleged link with the Neapolitan mafia, his weight, his “Che” tattoo Guevara, his friendship with Nicolás Maduro and Fidel Castro, his support for Cristina Kirchner, his Peronist militancy, his plastic surgery and his state of health were, among other things, the elements that have shaped the public figure of Maradona after his retirement from the courts.

Like most of the symbols of the Argentine nation, the historical value of Diego Armando Maradona is, to this day, the subject of rigorous public scrutiny that reaches minute levels of detail and does not allow for gray, but loves and hates.

The world can be separated between those who have seen Maradona on the pitch and those who have not, clinging to the prominence of his scandals. He will always be God for some and the Devil for others. Whatever the opinion, it can be agreed that we are talking about something more than the greatest footballer in history.