FYI a POV from Catalonia:
From my paper this morning a quote.
"Maradonna stained everything he touched, except the ball."
And an article hastily translated:
Looking back it appears amusing: Diego Maradona in 1984 kicking about on the beach in Castelldefels with some kids to whom he says, very formally, in an advertisement for the Generalitat's campaign: “If they offer you drugs, just say no ”. Or, together with Jordi Pujol in Palau, releasing to the press: "I immediately accepted (to do the ad) because I feel very sorry for those boys on drugs."
Despite appearances and the advert –everyone can have a bad day - Maradona never seemed like a hypocritical guy, just the opposite. He was already taking drugs in the badass, night owl, partying Barcelona of the eighties, always in bad company, but he had to consider it a duty to keep boys away from vice who would never have the second, third and fourth chances that he would enjoy..
Diego Armando Maradona has gone and one wonders who he was, beyond the footballer. The
chaos? The eternal adolescent? A great or a little man?
Luckily for everyone, Maradona is a few moments of supreme happiness with as much or more hypocrisy than his in the car ad. If the referee or the VAR had annulled that illegal goal against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, justice would have been done. As is known, Maradona finished off with his left fist against an archetype of honesty (or the dullness of the position), goalkeeper Peter Shilton.
I am one of those who put the greatness of that goal before universal justice because if football allows something, it is to be that arbitrary. And answering when leaving the locker room, with the expectant world media, that “it was the hand of God” is one of the most brilliant and memorable phrases in the history of sport. The next instant was his second goal, which is to the individual what Brazil's fourth goal in the 1970 final is to society. Maradona dribbles past six rivals and when they are beaten, nonchalantly, hits it with his left foot. End of story.
Only a people like the Argentine, half Italian, half Spanish, could have thought of attacking the Malvinas just like that, leading the youngsters to the slaughterhouse. "We knew that many Argentines had been killed there like little birds," Maradona recalled from the atmosphere in the Argentine squad prior to the duel against England. Again, the arbitrariness: we all thought it was a divine revenge.
An example of nothing off the field, angel on the field, it was always difficult to settle accounts with a guy capable of amassing a fortune and looking like the eternal unclassy guy.
Ed for bad pasting.
