Maradona lifting the FIFA World Cup in Argentina's victory in Mexico City on June 29, 1986. -

Carlo Fumagalli / AP / SIPA

Emmanuel Macron did not go there by four ways.

For him, there is no debate: Diego Maradona is quite simply "the greatest footballer of all time".

The Head of State paid tribute to the player, who died Wednesday at the age of 60, considering that he was an "artist", a "genius", a "sumptuous player".

“The hand of God had placed a football genius on earth.

She has just taken it from us, with an unforeseen dribble that has deceived all our defenses.

Did she want, with this gesture, to settle the debate of the century: is Diego Maradona the greatest football player of all time?

The tears of millions of orphans respond to it today with painful evidence, ”wrote Emmanuel Macron in a press release.

For the French president, Maradona was a “crampon dancer” whose “football had nothing recited” thanks to “an always renewed inspiration” and who “embodied the magic of the game”.

A historic match

Recalling the player's career with Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Naples, Emmanuel Macron stops on the quarter-final of the World Cup on June 22, 1986 in Mexico City against the England of Margaret Thatcher in conflict with Argentina on the islands Falklands.

“He still had to write the history of a country scarred by dictatorship and military defeat.

This resurrection took place in 1986, in the most geopolitical match in football history ”.

By lifting the trophy that year, Maradona allows the cup to return to Argentina.

"This time, it's that of the people, not that of the generals," remarks the president.

"But his expeditions to Fidel Castro as to Hugo Chavez will taste like a bitter defeat", he regrets.

Finally, the Head of State goes there with his Madeleine de Proust.

"To all those who saved their pocket money to finally complete the Panini Mexico 1986 album with its sticker, to all those who tried to negotiate with their partner to baptize their son Diego, to his Argentinian compatriots, to the Neapolitans who drawn frescoes worthy of Diego Rivera in his effigy, to all football lovers, the President of the Republic sends his heartfelt condolences ”.

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