Diego Maradona: The fallen angel is turning 60

Perhaps the most famous Argentine is turning 60. Diego Maradona can look back on an eventful life.

"Oh my god, what happened to him?" Sports writer Alex Steudel was horrified when he saw the football idol of his youth in the documentary "Diego Maradona" by British director and Oscar winner Asif Kapadia (48, "Amy,"). Steudel described in his column for "sport1" an old Maradona, who is "almost unrecognizable" and "can no longer walk properly because of a type of total body arthrosis. He limps heartbreakingly. And he talks like someone who is on drugs, his eyes often half closed (…) tears run down his bloated face, and you have a lump in your throat and just want to hug it and say: Come on, we'll do it all over again, but this time I'll help you and everything will be fine ".

Then this pitiful person says of himself as a player: "I was sick, a drug addict. I always ask myself: If I hadn't taken drugs, how well would I have played?" The review of his triumphs should torment Maradona this Friday too. Then he turns 60, when he inevitably looks into the past because it was the time of infinite joys.

The child prodigy from Buenos Aires

He was one of the greatest in football history, and enthusiasts saw him as the "eighth wonder of the world". "Playing with Maradona is beyond description. You have to be there. He was a genius," enthused the Brazilian Alemao (58). The Argentine coaching legend César Luis Menotti (82) reached deep into the poetic magic box on the subject of Maradona: "The ball and he were born together." Even sober sports watchers saw Maradona as a child prodigy. Probably this term best describes it. A child prodigy, mostly radiant, always naive, but also stubborn, defiant and irascible when things didn't go so brilliantly.

Diego Armando Maradona grew up as the fifth of eight children of a factory worker in Villa Fiorito, a slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. At nine he joined the children's team of the first division club Argentinos Juniors, at 15 he played in the first team, at 20 he was considered the best playmaker in South America. In 1981 he switched to the better-known local rival Boca Juniors and became Argentine champion. At 21 he was a world star, and even more: he ascended the throne of the world's best footballer, which was orphaned after the end of the career of the Brazilian Pelé (80).

Maradona's years in Europe

Then Maradona went to Europe for FC Barcelona. He played two years in Spain, a time of light and shadow. Brilliant appearances on the field were followed by scandals: Sometimes he instigated a mass brawl on the pitch, sometimes he sank into the nightlife. Today we know: Maradona's cocaine career began in Barcelona. Nevertheless, his soccer zenith followed between 1985 and 1990. Maradona won two Italian championships with his new club, SSC Napoli, and in 1986 with the Argentine national team (in the final against Germany), the World Cup in Mexico was his biggest stage. In the quarter-finals against England, he illegally pushed the ball into the English goal with his hand. "It was the hand of God," he says afterwards.

Back then, fans in Naples adored him with religious fervor. Many Tifosi had hung a photo of the Argentine next to the crucifix at home, and a stranger had painted a little Maradona on the lap of a portrait of a Madonna. Naples was also the metropolis of the Mafia organization Camorra. This captured the star, provided him with cocaine and prostitutes, a way of life that the Argentine has not let go of to this day. After the weekend games he celebrated excess cocaine up to and including Wednesday, and did not return to team training until Thursday. The club allegedly manipulated doping controls by submitting falsified urine samples. Eventually Maradona was sentenced to 14 months in prison for possession and distribution of drugs, on probation.

Disgraced

The Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" described him as a "disgusting person" who "offends those who have little or nothing". His coach from SSC Napoli said: "I agree wholeheartedly." Even the Camorra, who allegedly had their hands in the game in the twelve million record transfer from Barcelona to Naples, did not want to have anything more to do with him. Maradona became a persona non grata in Italy. The rest of his career has plummeted into the abyss. The following engagements at Sevilla FC (1992-1993) and the Argentine clubs Newell's Old Boys (1993-1994) and Boca Juniors (1995-1997) were mainly characterized by drug offenses, doping bans and suspended sentences. He was never able to build on old successes.

His subsequent coaching career has so far not been crowned with success. He coached the Argentine national team (2008-2010) at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa up to the quarter-finals. There she met Germany and lost 4-0. Maradona then hired himself in the United Arab Emirates, later signed with the Belarusian club Dynamo Brest, but then went to Mexico to the desolate second division club Dorados de Sinaloa in Culiacan. He led the team from last place into the playoffs, then disappeared, came back and finally resigned "for health reasons". In parting he called to the people: "Thank you for bringing me back to life." His current position is the Argentine first division team Gmynasia y Esgrima La Plata, his contract with the relegation candidate runs until 2021.

Unrestrained and without control

In his private life, Maradona indulged in self-destruction. Drugs, alcohol, medication. His former manager Guillermo Coppola (72) says that Diego is "out of control", that he "doesn't listen to anyone" and that he is a "driven personality" with no sense of proportion. Again and again he had to undergo clinical treatment. He suffered a severe heart attack and liver damage. Again and again he underwent withdrawal treatment – only to admit: "I was, am and will always be addicted to drugs." Outwardly, too, he looked less and less like the soccer hero. Maradona was up to 75 kilos overweight and had her stomach shrunk to shed 50 kilos. "FAZ" author Paul Ingendaay wrote: "Diego Maradona (…) was unlucky to have to stay alive and is still running around as a caricature of himself."

His women’s stories also belong to this picture of misery. He has at least eight children with six different wives (including a wife). It was not until 2019 that he recognized the paternity of three children in Cuba. He stayed there between 2000 and 2005 for drug withdrawal. He recently announced that he would not bequeath anything to his children, but rather donate his fortune. It won't be much anyway, because of the millions he earned as the best-paid kicker of his time, not even 150,000 euros should be left over.

Compassion for my own daughter

What is he left with? He is still revered in his homeland. The Iglesia Maradoniana parish has even been founded in Rosario, but it doesn't take itself seriously. Rather, she parodies the love for her god "D10S", a mix of the Spanish word Dios (god) and his shirt number 10. The rest is pity for a "very overweight old star who (…) is no longer considered to be completely sane "(ZDF). His daughter Giannina (31) said she was ashamed of her father, who suddenly dropped his pants while dancing with a woman in the summer: "It's very sad to see him like that. I never wanted my son to see his grandfather like that . "

For the coach-philosopher César Luis Menotti, the real Maradona is not the pitiful one: "Diego doesn't exist in any other world than on a football pitch. This is his life, his dream."

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