For Macron, Maradona is "the greatest football player of all time"

"Artist", this "genius", "this sumptuous player" is "the greatest footballer of all time", the one who "made the revolution on the field".

The words are from President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a heartfelt tribute to Diego Maradona, who died Wednesday at the age of 60.

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"The hand of God had deposited a genius of football on earth. It has just taken it back from us, with an unforeseen devil that has deceived all our defenses. Did it want, by this gesture, to settle the debate of the century: Diego Maradona is he the greatest football player of all time? The tears of millions of orphans respond today with painful evidence, "wrote Emmanuel Macron in a statement.

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

"It is indeed on the grounds that Maradona made the revolution"

Recalling the playing 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 bruised by dictatorship and military defeat. This resurrection took place in 1986, in the most geopolitical match in football history."

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

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

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

"It is on the grounds that Maradona made the revolution".

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"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 have drawn frescoes worthy of Diego Rivera in his effigy, to all football lovers, the President of the Republic sends his heartfelt condolences ", writes Macron.

Before concluding in Spanish, to say that Maradona remains: "Diego se queda".