Argentina, Naples, and the world of football were in mourning on Wednesday at the death of Diego Maradona, in many people’s eyes the greatest player of all time, following a heart attack. He was 60.
The Argentinian president Alberto Fernández, who declared three days of national mourning, said that Maradona had taken his country to the “highest of the world” with his virtuoso performances in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. “You made us immensely happy,” he wrote. “You were the greatest of all. Thanks for having existed, Diego. We will miss you all our lives.”
When his death was announced, some newscasters in Argentina could not hold back the tears. “Part of our childhood has died,” said one presenter on the TV news channel C5N. “I thought he could never die,” said another.
Meanwhile in Naples, a city where they venerated him as a saint and people used to tell him, “Ti amo piu che i miei figli” – I love you more than my own children – after he led an unheralded Napoli side to two Serie A titles, hundreds of fans gathered in front of Maradona murals in the Spanish Quarters. “Today, football died’’, one fan told Sky News.
Nine ambulances arrived to try and revive Maradona after he was found lifeless, apparently from a heart attack, shortly before midday at a rented home in a gated community in the suburb of Tigre, north of Buenos Aires. Maradona had been recovering from brain surgery on 3 November. Although the operation had been successful, Maradona was reported to be suffering from withdrawal from his alcohol addiction.
After his death was announced, the Brazilian Pele, his pre-eminent rival for the title of the world’s greatest player, paid tribute. “I lost a great friend and the world lost a legend. One day, I hope we can play ball together in the sky.” Lionel Messi, a modern great and another contender for the “greatest of all time” description, offered a taut and poetic tribute. “He leaves us but does not leave, because Diego is eternal.”
In England, Maradona will be most remembered for an outrageous sleight of hand – the so-called ‘Hand of God’ – where he soared above Peter Shilton and used his fist to punch the ball into an empty net to give Argentina the lead in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final.
Four minutes later Maradona then ripped the heart and hope from England. Picking up the ball at halfway, he did an outrageous 180-degree spin before slaloming past five players and poking the ball past Shilton.
But nearly 30 years after he left the city, his glittering legacy endures there – as it does elsewhere. As Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris eloquently put it on Wednesday: “Diego made our people dream, he redeemed Naples with his genius.”
