Diego Maradona at El Bosque stadium in La Plata, in 2019. -
ALEJANDRO PAGNI / AFP
Diego Maradona, the genius of the round ball who died Wednesday, paid dearly for his glory by sinking into drugs and alcohol, but this football icon, the equal of a god in Argentina, had always been able to bounce back.
Despite his excesses of all kinds, Diego Armando Maradona, born in Buenos Aires and who had just celebrated his 60th birthday, will forever remain the “diez”, the number ten, capable of scoring the most beautiful goals in history, like King Pelé, ultimately his only rival.
"The hand of God", forever
Angel or demon ?
The controversy has never stopped.
“Rebel.
Hero.
Scammer.
God ”: in his documentary“ Diego Maradona ”, presented out of competition at the Cannes film festival in May 2019, the Briton Asif Kapadia recounts the tumultuous years of the Argentine in Naples, which brought him his greatest joys and ended up with the grind.
From the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, the "Pibe de oro" ("golden kid") fell into the cauldron of Bombonera, the stadium of the Boca Juniors club, when he was little.
An outstanding dribbler capable of mystifying defenses, Maradona will remain the symbol and undisputed captain of Argentina.
Under the colors of the national team for 17 years (1977-1994), the legendary number 10 scored 50 goals in 115 games and offered his country the second World Cup in its history in 1986.
RIP Legend.
You will stay in the history of football forever.
Thanks you for all the pleasure you gave to the whole world 🙌🏽🙏🏽❤️
AÏE AÏE AÏE F * CKING 2020 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/8xc1CDKDg2
- Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) November 25, 2020
Among the thousands of photos accompanying the glory and then the downfall of Maradona, two images sum up her life.
The first dates back to 1986, one evening of the World Cup final, in the mythical Aztec stadium in Mexico City, where the 1.65 m player is only a huge smile brandishing the world trophy.
He is at the top of his game.
His goal scored with his hand against the English in the quarter-finals made a whole people scream with joy who accepted the improvised and brilliant explanation of Maradona: "the hand of God".
But football fans will especially remember his second goal against the same English, he who reviewed all the defense before deceiving the goalkeeper, a masterpiece of intuition and pure talent.
Much less glorious, the second photograph dates from April 26, 1991. Hirsute, puffy, unshaven, her eyes extinguished, Maradona leaves her home in Buenos Aires surrounded by two police officers who came to arrest her for possession and consumption of cocaine.
It is the beginning of degradation, rowdy declarations, excesses of all kinds, returns to the foreground carefully orchestrated by an entourage of sharks.
Detoxification cures will now alternate with relapses.
The beginning of the end
After having tasted drugs in Barcelona's barrio Chino, where he played two seasons (1982-1984), his addiction did not weaken during his glory years at Naples (1984-1991), the club where he was adored. for having won him the only two Italian league titles in its history, in 1987 and 1990.
But Maradona paid dearly for this celebrity he never knew how to manage.
Soiled by scandals, under a two-year suspension for a new positive test in 1994, he officially left the world of football, at age 37, on his birthday.
Repeated crises
Far from the stadiums, the decline will accelerate.
In 2000, he was hospitalized in Punta del Este, Uruguay's famous seaside resort, for a drug-related heart attack.
He got out of it and went to Cuba for rehab.
Four years of back and forth between Argentina and his second homeland will not succeed in curing him sustainably of his addiction to cocaine.
In 2004, he came close to death after a cardiovascular accident after which he returned to Havana.
The following year, he underwent surgery in Bogota to reduce the absorption capacity of his stomach to fight obesity, which allowed him to lose nearly 50 kilograms.
Argentina wants to believe it again.
At the end of 2005, charming and in good shape, he broke audience records with his television program “La nuit du 10” where he notably invited his great rival Pelé.
However, Diego starts to drink, gets fat, smokes and relapses in a liver attack which brings him back to the hospital in 2007.
Our file on Diego Maradona
Once again, he comes out and returns to service.
Appointed coach of the Argentina team in 2008, he was dismissed two years later for poor results.
Subsequently, he coached two Emirati clubs before enlisting as president of Belarusian club Dinamo Brest (D1) in 2018. The same year, he became coach of the Dorados de Sinaloa (Mexican D2) before slamming. the door with a crash eight months later because of an unsanctioned penalty for his club.
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