As soon as the news of the disappearance of his former teammate in Argentina was announced, he tweeted one of the most beautiful sentences about Diego Maradona: “I love you Diego.
I don't judge you for what you have done with your life but I love you for what you have done with ours ”.
Words that sum up who the Argentine idol was from one of those who knew him best.
Former PSG player between 1987 and 1990 and Caen in 1992-93, Gabriel Calderon is 60 years old - he was born in 1960 as Maradona - and was a finalist in the 1990 World Cup alongside him.
Younger, he was world champion under 20 years with the "Pibe de Oro" (the golden kid) in 1979.
Te quiero Diego.
No te juzgo por lo que hiciste con un tu vida sino que te amo por lo que hiciste con la nuestra.
DEP #DiegoArmandoMaradona 💙🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/N58jCqMdhI
- Gabriel H. Calderón (@gabihcalderon) November 25, 2020
How did you get these words of farewell to your friend Maradona?
GABRIEL CALDERON.
I wanted to tell him that I didn't want to judge him for what he did in his private life.
It was his business.
But I wanted to tell him how much I loved him and how much I will always love him for what he has brought to my life.
It was the best way to define who he was.
Diego is gone but Maradona will always be there with us.
What relationship did you have with him?
We played our first World Cup together at 19.
We were the same age and he was already an extraordinary player by then.
It was the Under-20s in 1979 and we won it.
We made the World Cup in Spain together in 1982 and then the 1990 in Italy.
We also played a Copa America together.
I had the privilege of playing four major world tournaments with him.
I have lived a lot by his side.
I think I can say I knew him well.
What memory did he keep of the 1990 World Cup and the final lost to Germany?
A memory between two feelings, shared: the pride of having gone to the final and the disappointment of having lost it.
When Diego wore the Argentina jersey, he had only one idea in mind: "to die to win"
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Maradona's two legendary goals at the 1990 World Cup
Who was he to his friends?
A very good companion, always supportive, present for his teammates.
He had a lot of humility.
He was a great person.
He was also a winner.
I spent so much time with him, so many important moments that I could talk about it for hours.
Did his life still belong to him?
When I met her young she was still normal.
But when he left for Barcelona in 1982, that started to change.
His private life was over.
He no longer had any: he could no longer go to restaurants, to the hairdresser, to the cinema.
He couldn't go out with his family.
He always had the personality to accept who he was, but I think he suffered from it.
Being the most important figure on earth is not easy.
Does it bother you that the whole world is talking about him without having known him?
No, because Diego belonged to the whole world.
He has given people happiness for all these years and it is normal that everyone has their own memory of Diego Maradona.
Thanks to that, he will always be alive.
When was the last time you saw him?
We always had a great relationship but we didn't see each other often.
Last time it must have been three years ago in Dubai because we both worked there.
We saw each other for dinner regularly.
VIDEO. Death of Maradona: Argentines celebrate the memory of "Diego"
How does Argentina cope with this mourning?
The country has always had problems.
Even in 2020, Argentines don't have enough to eat.
But with Diego, they forgot everything.
Through his genius and with a ball, he offered them 90 minutes of happiness to forget that they were hungry.
Argentines have never forgotten it and they will never forget it.
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