In the distance, above the walls of the "Jardin Bella Vista", Maradona's brother, Lalo, seated on the lawn of a green cemetery, collects himself next to Diego's tombstone, chatting quietly with his sister Lili.

In front of them a few bouquets.

Before them passed Veronica Ojeda, ex-partner of Maradona and mother of her son Diego Fernando.

Outside the cemetery, with the access reserved for members of the family, pass fans, alone or in clusters.

To drop a bouquet of flowers, a word, brandish a portrait.

Just to be there, and to repeat, again and again, the immensity of the void and the "thanks".

"Diego was the god of football, and all of us who love football know what we lost. Diego was ours, he was of the people. He gave us joys, and sorrows, when everything went wrong and we suffered ", explains to AFP Jorge Navarro, supporter of Independiente - club where never played Maradona - who lives near the cement factory

In her hands, a giant photo of Maradona with the 1986 World Cup, and a caption: "Eternal Thanks".

"The people's voice"

"He was everything, he was everything, he generated all feelings", smiles Jonatan Luna, aware of the genius and the faults of the idol.

"One day you loved him and the next day you hated him, another day you wanted him there, the next day you didn't even want to see him anymore, and it was all a set, it was him."

Raul Maradona and Elsa Maradona, the brother and sister of the Argentine genius, lay a wreath of flowers on his grave in Bella Vista, Buenos Aires, November 25, 2021 JUAN MABROMATA AFP

"Today is a sad day, but we try to remember him as best as possible, so that the day is not as gray as the sky", adds the fan, showing off his forearm tattooed with the player's face , and brandishing a jersey from Gimnasia de La Plata, the last club that a few months in 2019-2020 coached, a very diminished Maradona.

50 km away, in front of the house where the + Pibe de Oro + (golden kid) grew up in the slum of Villa Fiorito, the same discreet scene is repeated, of personal contemplation, without glare or noise.

The same respectful deposits of a flag, of a handwritten message saying: "You gave us the sky".

And also a plaque hanging from the grid: "Thank you for playing football".

In front of the small house, on the wall also adorned with a fresco of the legendary left-hander in the jersey of the Albiceleste, a man gets out of a 4X4, approaches the gate, leans his head on it, and cries softly.

This is the first time that Jose Maria Fernandez, from Buenos Aires, has come to the cradle of his idol.

Jose Maria was only 10 years old when Argentina beat England (2-1) in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup, on his way to the coronation, with two goals from Maradona, a virtuoso solo and a "hand of God" entered the legend.

But it makes no secret of the place of the "D10S", of this match, and of these goals, in the imagination of a country for a long time to come.

A supporter wearing a jersey stamped with Diego Maradona's N.10 in the Neapolitan era walks past a fresco of the Argentine idol at Villa Fiorito, in Buenos Aires, on November 25, 2021 JUAN MABROMATA AFP

"It was a people's revenge for the Falklands War (1982). Maradona was the voice of the Argentine people. He will be missed and loved for life."

© 2021 AFP