Buenos Aires (AFP)
"I can't believe it", "a bad dream": Argentina mourned Wednesday its idol Diego Maradona, who died of a heart attack at the age of 60 after a career that unleashed passions to veneration.
"Maradona will be an indelible part of the collective memory of Argentina. He is a huge idol. We will be eternally grateful to him", summed up Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, who declared three days of national mourning.
In the streets of the tango capital, an infinite sadness could be read on the faces.
"I can't believe it," repeats dazed Francisco Salaverry, 28.
"I feel like a bad dream. I want to believe it's a joke", laments to AFP the young man, who was only four years old when Maradona offered his second world title to Argentina.
Gabriel Oturi, 68, has "a hard time talking about it", he says he is "totally shocked, bruised".
Nicolas Luna either has "no words": "I have trouble walking, my voice trembles when I speak, I'm afraid of starting to cry", he gasps.
At the foot of the Obelisk, right in the center of Buenos Aires, the traditional meeting place for sporting celebrations, a little over a thousand admirers gathered in the evening to pay a final tribute to their idol.
"When I learned of his death, it was as if my body had frozen, something very heavy fell on me," says Gustavo Caballero, who came from the south of the capital.
The call for this gathering, where some covered their shoulders with the Argentinian flag, had been launched by the "Maradonian Church", formed of faithful who venerate the "god" Maradona.
Other fans gathered around the stadium that bears the name of the legendary star in the Argentine capital: in front of a mural depicting the face of the champion, an altar has been improvised, adorned with roses, candles and shirts bearing the iconic number 10.
“Thanks for so much magic ... and now what do we do without you,” it says on a sign.
- "The most human of the gods" -
In the Boca district, where Maradona played for the Boca juniors club, Patricia believes that she has lost "like a father" because "here Maradona was everything for us".
Guillermo will never be able to realize the dream of his life, that of "taking in (his) arms" the famous number 10 whose effigy covers his body.
The date of the funeral has not yet been set, but a fiery chapel will be installed on Thursday at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.
Despite the excesses of all kinds, Maradona remains for several generations of Argentines a symbol of their identity.
Four years after the Falklands War (1982), he scored the winning goal against England, one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful goal in football history, after the one scored in the famous "hand of God", swelling a whole people with pride.
Before making him hysterical by lifting the World Cup in Mexico-1986.
"Rarely in my life have I felt the pain that overwhelms me today, rarely have I felt as much joy as on June 29, 1986 when we touched the sky with our hands, the same sky that today ' hui darkens and fills us with tears, "wrote Mauricio Passadore, an admirer, of this historic match.
On social networks spread the sorrow of the Argentines.
Many point out that "he died on the same day as Fidel Castro", the Cuban leader, who died on November 25, 2016. The two admired each other.
Maradona's death in a football-loving country will have a major impact on the mood of Argentines, already hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis.
"Another pain for this crappy year 2020," writes Isabel Puente, 70.
Maradona was "a wandering, dirty and sinful God. The most human of gods," wrote an anonymous worshiper whose text went viral.
video-ls / lab / jb / ob
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