Manic Maradona at the World Cup
Argentina’s World Cup performance will soon be forgotten but the soccer legend’s antics will surely be remembered
IT WASN’T much of a surprise to spot him in the stands. He is, after all, an Argentinian soccer legend, a former coach of the national side and a Fifa ambassador. So yes, seeing Diego Maradona watching his team take on Nigeria in the dying days of the pool games at the Fifa World Cup in Russia was to be expected. Fans were excited to spot his portly 1,65m figure at the game and the 57-year-old was only too happy to show off for them. But it wasn’t long before things went pear-shaped – as they so often do with Maradona. Within a matter of hours he was the subject of memes and the object of worldwide ridicule because of his bizarre behaviour, which included flashing rude signs, baring his bulging belly and apparently dozing off.
Paramedics were even called at one stage – and rumours got so out of control his sisters heard he’d died.
It’s really not funny, says Maradona’s lawyer, Matias Morla. “I’ve instructed my office to make public the decision to offer a reward of 300 000 Argentinian pesos (R145 000) to the person who provides accurate information about who spread the rumour. It was a very long night.”
Indeed it was. Maradona may have stolen the limelight and overshadowed his team’s victory but he really only heaped a hefty dose of what-the-hell on his head.
Gary Lineker, former England player-turned-BBC presenter, called the former star striker a laughing stock. “There’s Diego Maradona celebrating,” he said. “I think he might make the papers for a different kind of celebration – there’s a danger he’s becoming a laughing stock, I’m afraid. He’s let himself down. You can understand how he’s euphoric, but this kind of reaction . . . Really, Diego?”
Former England defender Rio Ferdinand was less than impressed too. “His career as a football player was up there with the best,” he says. “Unfortunately
Jthere are moments like this that arise.”
Fifa isn’t charmed either and reportedly cut ties with Maradona after the game. ON SMITH, Maradona’s former agent, believes he knows the reasons behind the antics of the man once nicknamed “Golden Boy”.
“He quite enjoys being a parody of himself at times,” he told the BBC. “Diego is a really high-energy guy and has always been that way.”
But he struggles to sleep. “So he takes sleeping pills. And if he [ingests] other substances during the day, such as alcohol, it has an effect on him. I just hope one day he doesn’t do something stupidly excessive and something silly happens.”
Maradona indeed seemed unsteady on his feet at the game and was treated by a medical team – but he took to Instagram the next day to assure his fans he was okay and that rumours of his death had been greatly exaggerated.
“I want to tell everyone that I am fine, that I am not, neither was I, interned. In the halftime of the game against Nigeria, my neck hurt a lot and I suffered a decompensation.
“I was checked by a doctor and he recommended me to go home before the second half, but I wanted to stay because we were risking it all. How could I leave? I send a kiss to everyone, thanks for the support!”
No doubt. He may be on the verge of becoming a laughing stock but Maradona has staying power – and a gigantic ego to spur him on.
Who can forget the iconic moment during the 1986 world cup when he scored that infamous “hand of God” goal? It was an obvious foul but the referee didn’t see it and the goal was allowed. Four minutes later Maradona dribbled deftly past five players to what became known as the “goal of the century”. Argentina went on to win the world cup and Maradona returned home a national hero.
Since then he’s courted the limelight and even started his own church, the Maradonian Church, in Rosario, Argentina, where fans worship the guy they deem the country’s greatest footballer. But his demons surfaced when he became addicted to alcohol, drugs and food, and the once-fit little soccer phenomenon became a bloated mess of a man seemingly at death’s door.
In 2004 he was hospitalised in Switzerland with an enlarged heart that beat at a third of its capacity. He spent weeks in hospital while fans kept vigil outside, praying for his recovery. When their prayers were answered he vowed to get in shape, and his ex-wife, Claudia Villefañe, and daughters Dalma (31) and Giannina (29) helped. They insisted he go to rehab and he also had an operation to staple his stomach in a bid to lose weight.
For a while he was back on the straight and narrow, even becoming a slim-and-trim host of a talk show. But the outrageousness didn’t take long to resurface.
“Maradona is one of a kind,” one sports journalist reported. “Love him or hate him, he’s impossible to ignore.”