In Buenos Aires, they will remember Diego Maradona with three days of mourning for a national hero and one of the greatest football players of all time.
“Football is over,” Omar Rico, a fan of Maradona, said. “Without Maradona, there is no more football. There is no Messi, there is no Pele, only Maradona, for all of Argentina.”
Born in 1960 and raised in a Buenos Aires slum, Maradona went on to play for Argentina as a teenager.
Maradona was stocky and powerful.
His skill and balance made him unstoppable and in 1986 he led Argentina to a sensational and controversial World Cup victory.
“He was from here, represented us, he waved our flag, gave us joy,” Jan Jose Quinteros, a Maradona fan, said. “He filled us with joy in front of the English. We did not wage war on them, but with that ‘hand of God’, he gave the soul back to the people.”
Maradona also thrived in club football playing for Barcelona in the early 1980s and then Napoli in Italy where he is still seen as a favourite son for taking them to their first-ever Italian titles.
Napoli’s stadium is to be renamed after him.
“The stadium is at the moment called San Paolo, St Paul,” Tancredi Palmeri, beIN Sports Italy Correspondent, explained. “So many are thinking we are switching from the name of a saint to the name of a god because this is how Maradona was held in Naples.”
This video was edited by Al Jazeera Newsfeed’s Hassan Ghani.
