By then, Maradona had not yet turned 19 and was nothing more than a promise.
Great promise, yes.
He had been playing for Argentinos Juniors for three years, a kind of Rayo Vallecano from Buenos Aires, and had been the top scorer in the Argentine championship twice.
He had recently won the first FIFA Youth World Cup, plus the awards for top scorer and best player.
Before that, he had been an Argentine international several times with Menotti, although he was out of the 1978 World Cup.
He was obsessed with meeting Pelé.
He had made friends with Guillermo Blanco, a journalist for
El Gráfico
, the now-defunct legendary Argentine magazine, and he asked him to.
Blanco talked about it with his bosses, who saw the possibility of a good report and got to it.
It was only a year and a half after Pelé's retirement, a Cosmos-Brazil match in New York, in which he played one time for each and scored his last goal.
It was a worldwide event.
His celebrity was on top.
He lived in New York, frequently traveling anywhere as an ambassador for Warner Communications, or for any charity or publicity cause.
On April 8, 1979 he had to be in Rio de Janeiro for a noble cause: a Flamengo-Atlético Mineiro enlisted to play in Maracaná, organized in search of funds to alleviate tremendous floods (240 dead) in Minas Gerais.
Pelé would play with Flamengo, for the first and only time.
Flamengo is the great national club of Brazil and Zico, the
white Pele
, played there
.
Putting them together on the same front was the great claim of the party, which brought together 140,000 people.
Rio could be a lightning trip.
Pelé called them for Monday 9. The day before, Argentinos Juniors received Huracán, which they won 3-1.
The game ended at 5:45 p.m. and Maradona went like an arrow to Ezeiza, where at 6:30 p.m. the boarding of the British Caledonian Buenos Aires-Rio-London flight that took off at 7:30 p.m. closed.
The coach and the president of Argentinos Juniors, Delem and Próspero Consoli, tried to object to him, but he argued that after the match he was no longer under the command of the club, since since Tuesday there was a concentration of the national team.
He traveled with his father, Jorge Czyterspiller and two members of
El Gráfico
, Guillermo Blanco to write the note and Ricardo Alfieri father for the photos.
He arrived in Rio in time to see Flamengo-Atlético Mineiro (in which Zico gave 10 to Pelé and played with 9) on TV at the Copacabana hotel, two blocks from the meeting place.
The meeting took place at eleven in the morning at Casa Chopin, a mansion that had been the residence of three presidents of Brazil, owned by a billionaire named Alfredo Saad, who housed Pelé when he passed through Rio.
Maradona arrived excited.
Pelé did not dedicate much time to him ("sorry, I thought you would not come in the end, I have to go to Santos for an appointment with my notary"), but he was affectionate.
They chatted, he sang to him accompanying himself on the guitar, he asked him about his team, about Delem (Brazilian), he gave him a signed watch, a ball and a shirt, and a commemorative medal on the day of his retirement.
They hit it off.
Maradona asked him for some advice to orient himself in his life, which
El Gráfico
collected in his note.
A kind of bushido code from old samurai to young samurai:
1.- Never pay attention when they tell you that you are the best.
The day you feel the best you will cease to be forever.
2.- Accept the applause but don't live from it.
The fans when you play three games badly already yell at you, stop loving you.
3.- In contracts, always make yourself respected.
You have to fight for what you are really worth.
Never give yourself away.
But yes: when you sign your contract, then do not protest or ask for more.
The signature is like a word.
4.- Regarding the sale abroad, you have to decide after having analyzed it very well.
You are eight siblings, your father and your mother.
In the decision put that in your balance.
The leaders pass every two or three years, you have to think about the family, there are many mouths to feed.
5.- The body is your work tool.
Take care of him.
In life there is time for everything, even as a player: to go out, to have a drink, smoke a cigarette, go to bed late, eat whatever you want.
But with balance, without damaging your physique, because then everything ends.
In time they became suspicious of each other.
They had disputes over who was the best in history.
FIFA had to divide the award for the best of the 20th century between them.
Regarding the advice, in principle he followed them faithfully, but over time he neglected the first and the last.
Pity.