The world paid tribute to the legendary Diego Maradona on Thursday marking the one-year anniversary of his death. Argentina’s football player was regarded by some as the best player of all time and a man loved in his home country Argentina along with his human flaws.
Argentine club matches spent a minute of silence in his memory and the players arranged themselves in a “10” formation on the pitch to honor Maradona’s famous jersey number. A number of special masses were held including in the Buenos Aires slum where Maradona grew up, to mark the day he passed away.
Two statues for Maradona were revealed in Naples where the striker spent part of his career.
The Argentine Football League paid homage on the eve of the anniversary, with a video of the life, goals, and many trophies of the man nicknamed “Pibe de Oro” (Golden Kid) saying, “We’ll miss you for the rest of our lives”.
Maradona passed away due to a heart attack last November at the age of 60, just a few weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.
The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona, and Napoli star had fought cocaine and alcohol addictions for years and was suffering from liver, kidney, and cardiovascular disorders when at the time he passed away.
Fans around the world were shocked to learn of his death as tens of thousands queued to file past his coffin, draped in the Argentine flag, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires during three days of national mourning.
From ubiquitous mural frescos that depict Maradona as an idol to television series regarding his life and even a religion bearing his name.
Maradona’s two goals in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals, which earned victory for Argentina over England just four years after the Falklands War made him an instant hero.
His stellar sporting achievements, rags-to-riches story, complicated life, and dramatic death have made his memory entrenched in the minds of the people of Argentina.
In the cities, Maradona’s name is honored in countless graffiti: “Diego lives”, “10 Eternal” and “D10S” — a play of words with the Spanish word for God, “Dios”, and Maradona’s famous jersey number.
Murals in Buenos Aires portray him with angel wings, as a patron saint complete with halo and scepter, or back here on Earth, kissing the World Cup.
Maradona is arguably remembered as much for his “Hand of God” goal which illegally came off his hand in what he attributed to supernatural intervention as for his second in the same match against England which later became known as the “Goal of the Century”.
As per Latin American columnist Eduardo Galeano these extremes “a virtuous goal and a sinful goal” that also reflected Maradona’s conflicted life of virtue and vice help explain people’s fascination with him.