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Diego Maradona stands there on his pedestal, his right hand on his heart, his gaze directed into the distance, as if none of this was his business.
The statue of the Argentine soccer star in the Boca Juniors' stadium cannot be affected by the hustle and bustle of the past few days, just like the murals with the likeness of the 1986 world champion and all the other memorabilia that can be found all over Buenos Aires.
But since Wednesday there has been a chaos of pain and grief, farewell and hero worship around it
Maradona has been adored here since he stepped on the football stage in the 1970s.
"D10S", the god with the number ten.
Especially now.
On Wednesday lunchtime, news of his death hit the Argentine capital like a bomb, spilling over into the rest of the country, leaving a nation in deep sorrow.
Grief is omnipresent in Buenos Aires
Source: REUTERS
He was 60 years old, and no one can say that his death from a heart attack came as a surprise given the way he lived.
But secretly the Argentines probably thought he was immortal - as often as he had already jumped death off the shovel.
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One of these Argentines is George Lenga (63), who sells souvenirs in front of the Boca Juniors stadium.
He built a shrine to Maradona in his shop.
An almost life-size statue is fenced in in its own room.
The idol with the World Cup trophy has something of Mary and the baby Jesus.
Behind it is a large painting from Maradona's time with the Boca Juniors.
And a photo of the Saint's visit to George's shop.
The owner, who proudly mentions his Volga-German ancestors, looks sad.
It is difficult for him to put his feelings for Maradona into words, his eyes fill with tears when he speaks: “We have a saying: 'A cat has seven lives, but with Maradona we stopped counting.'
We really thought he'd never go away.
But even now he's not really dead. He lives on in us.
Just like when a father or grandpa dies. "
Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez and his wife Fabiola Yanez said goodbye at the coffin that was laid out in the presidential palace
Source: via REUTERS
Fans have set up a small memorial in front of the stadium entrance.
They worship their Diego here, although he only played one season for Boca in the 1980s and ended his career there rather unspectacularly in the 1990s.
The mourning fans laid flowers, lit candles, and put down empty beer cans and wine bottles.
A homage to the lifestyle of their hero, whom they no longer hold against him at the latest.
Many have put down shirts and written personal messages.
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"Gracias Diego" can be read on many letters.
Thank you for the Torneo Metropolitano, the 1981 championship with Boca.
And of course for the 1986 world championship title, the so far last major title of the “Albiceleste”, the national team of Argentina.
A triumph that distinguishes Maradona from Lionel Messi (33).
That is why the Argentines love their Diego while at most they respect the Barcelona star.
"Maradona is a lion, Messi is just a rabbit," it says here.
Diego Maradona: One man, one number
Source: Getty Images
And that, although Messi has so far lived rather scandal-free and Maradona has only attracted scandals.
Or is that exactly why?
Because that is also part of the “Diego myth”.
He always offered something for the people.
Even before his death, following the disputes of the Maradona family was a hobby of many Argentines.
Women, ex-wives, new friends, daughters, cousins - who talked to whom and who was enemies, there were full-length TV formats.
Maradona was buried in close family circles
Source: AP
Maradona, that was one: rascal and rascal, charmer and bully.
The deception with the hand of God at the 1986 World Cup against England - for the people also a revenge for the Falklands War, which Argentina lost in 1982 after two and a half months of fighting against Great Britain.
And besides, football is just like that, everyone tries to gain an advantage, say the Argentines.
The three illegitimate children he had during his rehab in Cuba?
They smile about that here.
The drug excesses?
Well, just Maradona.
Argentina is going through a serious crisis
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The 1986 World Cup title gave the country something to be proud of after the military dictatorship that ended in 1983.
Comparable to the “Miracle of Bern” in 1954 that united the young Federal Republic.
Argentina could use a similar success again now.
It is going through a deep economic crisis, Corona has almost completely paralyzed public life in the past eight months.
And the peso, the national currency, is losing value almost every day.
Journalist Sergio Danishevsky says: “We are a happy people, we celebrate more than there is to celebrate.
But in the past few months we just got too much beating down on us.
We can't celebrate right now. "
This also explains what happened in Buenos Aires over the past few days, what broke out in the sign of mourning.
Maradona's body was laid out in the presidential palace "Casa Rosada" in the Plaza de Mayo, and tens of thousands quickly turned up to say goodbye.
Although they were smuggled past the coffin so quickly that they could barely cross and bow their heads, the masses simply could not be mastered.
When the police wanted to close the palace doors because the family wanted to bury the deceased, riots broke out: barriers were torn down, the police used tear gas.
But heartbreaking scenes also played out: fans streaked with tears crouched in the street because they couldn't shout one last "Adiós" to their darling.
Procession of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires
After the funeral mass for Diego Maradona in the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, the procession with the corpse of the football legend drove to the Bella Vista cemetery.
Source: Stats Perform News
Instead, they make themselves heard in other ways.
On the Internet, they protest against the cancellation of the party, for which Maradona's ex-wife Claudia is supposed to be responsible.
“Maradona belongs to all of us,” they write.
And they are immortalized on the walls of houses in the Argentine capital.
Graffiti and graffiti can be seen everywhere.
This is also a typical Argentine form of hero worship.
Policemen cordon off the cemetery
Maradona was buried on Thursday evening barely 24 hours after his death.
Not in the celebrity cemetery “La Recoleta”, where the former Argentine First Lady Eva Perón is buried, but in the “Jardín de Paz” at the gates of Buenos Aires, a rather unpretentious cemetery.
He was laid down next to his parents in the "Peace Garden".
For fear of fans, the cemetery where Maradona bought land for the family in the 1980s because he lived nearby is guarded around the clock by the police.
Police cars are already three blocks from the entrance, the officers will not let anyone through who does not live nearby.
Only those who can prove that they want to visit deceased relatives are allowed into the cemetery.
Maradona finds his final resting place
Football legend Diego Maradona was buried in a private cemetery in Bella Vista, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
The 1986 world champion had died at the age of 60.
Source: Stats Perform News
On Saturday it rained all day in Buenos Aires in the Argentine summer.
Maradona fan Diego Rodriguez, 34, who was named after the football idol by his parents, looks up sadly and says: "Now heaven is crying with Argentina." Tears run down his face.