In the press - Disappearance of Diego Maradona: "God is dead"

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On the front page of the international press, the disappearance, yesterday, of the legend of Argentine football, Diego Maradona.

No one more than him, no doubt, will have so much to lie to the adage according to which "no one is a prophet in his country".

In Argentina, Diego Maradona was much more than a prophet, a god, mourned by an entire nation - and even beyond.

"Maradona is dead and the world is crying": the site of the

newspaper

announces three days of national mourning and delivers the smallest details, almost minute by minute, of the hours preceding the player's death, his last photo, the circumstances of his death, caused by a heart attack.

The end of an existence that the daily compares to a "permanent roller coaster between its marvelous escalations and its brutal falls, (because) nobody had ever given Diego Maradona the rules of the game".

"Thank you Diego": on the

, the designers of the newspaper wanted to say "goodbye" to him, each in his own way.

A simple soccer ball, sent from the sky, like a final wink, for the illustrator Tute.

Maradona, the last heavenly flight, with a design by Max Aguirre, which pays homage to the modest origins of the “pibe de oro”, of the “golden kid:“ The popular gods are always muddy, like all theirs ”.

Immense emotion also in Italy, where the romance of Diego Maradona with Naples, between 1984 and 1991 had given rise to two league titles and a victory in the UEFA Cup.

"The God of the ball" made the front page of all the transalpine dailies, starting with

, which evokes the "love story" between Napoli and the player, "this king Midas of football, (who) had achieved the feat of transforming the outskirts into a center ”, the city of Naples into the capital of calcio, the Italian championship.

“The calcio goes to paradise”: according to 

, the name of Maradona, “immense and unique player, practically a divinity”, would not even have to be mentioned, as it would be “obvious, superfluous”.

"It would be like saying who Ulysses was, who Dante Alighieri was, who was Jesus Christ our Lord, who was Einstein": for the newspaper, "Maradona was probably and quite simply the greatest footballer of all time".

Before Naples, Diego Maradona had worn the colors of FC Barcelona, ​​from 1982 to 1984. At Barça, El Pibe de Oro had managed the triplet King's Cup, King's Supercup and Spanish League Cup, leaving again in his wake an emotion, a fervor to which the front page of the Catalan newspaper

testifies: “aDios”, “for God, goodbye forever”.

"The footballer who played, who will play to be God, to be number ten": in homage to the player, whom he compares both to "a star" and to "a storm",

, another daily Catalan, dribble with the words.

"Idolized for his football and punished for his sins, Maradona died at the age of 60".

The Argentine player has achieved worldwide fame, far beyond the countries where he played.

For the Lebanese daily

, Diego Maradona "was one of the most charismatic and controversial players in history" and will remain forever, "despite his excesses of all kinds, the" diez " , number ten, capable of scoring the most beautiful goals in history, like King Pelé, ultimately his only rival ”.

"God withdrew his hand": for the German daily

, Diego Maradona "entered the legend" on June 22, 1986, paving the way for Argentina to its second World Cup, thanks to "a goal that was not one ”the famous goal of the hand against England in the quarter-finals.

day, the Argentines expect a lot from the Albiceleste and intend to take revenge on the British, who defeated them four years earlier in the Falklands War.

Maradona will offer them this revenge with this goal which he then declared that he had marked it "a little with the head and a little with the hand of God".

The French press is in unison with this fervor.

"God is dead" - to which one would almost want to add, like Woody Allen: "And I myself do not feel very well".

In France,

, in the midst of a mystical crisis, evokes "a devilish life", the "immense exploits of a player from the streets and the weaknesses of a man drawn to darkness".

“A mad love of football and of life”.

"Diego Maradona is dead, football is dead", outbid the magazine

, about this character while paradoxes, whose "diabolical feats have finally turned against him", "a popular and controversial icon, far from the champions as it should be ”,“ an idol of the South, being able at the same time to be friends with Castro and Chavez as it had been a time with Carlos Menem, the right-handed president of Argentina and to advertise for Coca-Cola ” .

“To be a genius is not a condition of rest,” concludes the magazine as an epitaph.

Maradona will finally be able to rest: “Wednesday, no intervention from God could help her.

Argentina has declared three days of national mourning, which seems petty to us, ”writes

.

We will leave the last word to the English press.

34 years later,

has not forgotten the 1986 goal but, despite everything, salutes the "great" Maradona, now "in the hands of God".

prefers to keep the memory of a flamboyant Maradona, victorious, beaming with happiness, the day Argentina won the World Cup in 1986. Everything is forgiven ...

Every morning on France 24, you can find the Press Review (Monday to Friday, at 7.20 am and 9.20 am Paris time).

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