Diego Maradona, source of inspiration for many works
Diego Maradona during the presentation of Emir Kusturica's documentary dedicated to his life, during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. AFP - VALERY HACHE
Text by: David Kalfa Follow
4 min
Documentaries, songs, works… Rarely has a player inspired so many works as Diego Maradona.
Works often as much centered on the character and on his career as on his football career.
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In 2014, the Uruguayan writer and intellectual
Eduardo Galeano
theorized about Diego Maradona, one of his idols: “
He has become a sort of dirty God, the most human of gods.
Perhaps that explains the universal reverence he has acquired, more than any other player.
A dirty God who looks like us: a womanizer, talkative, drunkard, greedy, irresponsible, liar, boastful.
[…] But the gods do not go away, however human they may be.
Maradona was never able to return to the anonymous crowd he came from.
Fame, which had saved him from misery, made him a prisoner.
"
It also made him an inexhaustible source of inspiration for many intellectuals and artists, the late Galeano might have added.
Because, few sportsmen and no other footballer, have inspired as many works as Maradona.
His life on small and large screens ...
If Diego Maradona has spent most of his playing career on the small screen,
his unique and tortuous life
has been brought to the big screen on numerous occasions.
We can no longer count the high quality documentaries devoted to the Argentinian, like
Maradona, a golden kid
.
The best known is obviously that of Emir Kusturica during which the Serbian filmmaker follows in the footsteps of the superstar and the people who have created a cult in his name: "
the Iglesia Maradoniana
".
Maradona by Kusturica
was presented at the 2008 Cannes film festival.
Proof that the fate of El pibe de oro continues to fascinate, in 2019, the British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, who received an Oscar for a documentary on the singer Amy Winehouse, releases
Diego Maradona
, focused on his years of glory in Naples.
... and in songs
Diego Maradona has also inspired many songs, including
La mano de dios
by Argentinian Rodrigo Bueno: “
In a village where he was born, it was God's wish, to grow up and survive the humble expression, to face adversity, with the desire to win with every step of his life.
In a pasture, he forged an immortal left foot, with greedy experience, the ambition to make it happen.
"
Or that of the Franco-Spanish Manu Chao, La vida tombola: "
If I were Maradona, I would live like him, if I was Maradona, in front of any goal, if I was Maradona, I would never have wrong.
"
And even when he is not the subject of the song, his name comes up in the lyrics, as in
Chewing Gum
by Elvis Costello,
L8 CMMR
by Lily Allen, passing by many tracks from rappers and rap groups. French like Booba or Sexion d'Assaut.
Various works
In South America, Diego Maradona is both a sporting and cultural icon.
It has inspired works of fiction, such as motion pictures (
El camino de San Diego
), comics (
Cazador
), plays (
Cosmic Kite, the goal of the century
), not to mention statues and the like. frescoes with his effigy in the cities of Argentina.
A fresco to the glory of Maradona, in the city of San Justo in Argentina.
AFP - JUAN MABROMATA
Despite his death, the works dedicated to El Diez should not stop.
The Amazon Prime Video platform will put online in a few weeks,
Maradona: Sueño bendito
, a series of 20 episodes.
A highly anticipated biopic by fans of the ex-midfielder.
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