A few days ago for Pele's 80th birthday, the only one who speaks his same football language, Diego Armando Maradona sent a message of good wishes. Friday, the day when the 'Pibe de oro' will cross the threshold of 60, it is to be sworn that 'O'Rey' will reciprocate. Courtesies among champions that time will never be able to fade. Diego, together with the Brazilian, is still an icon of football, but he represents much more than a football ace. The Argentine, who has always been a myth and symbol, was also a popular leader, an icon of creativity and rebellion, with his Indian face and his warrior spirit. A concentrate of life and sport, suspended between human weaknesses and class blows. As a leader he split and united entire generations, as when - on the eve of the semifinal of the 1990 World Cup, between Italy and Argentina, which would be played in 'his' Naples - he pointed the finger at an entire country, which "remembered Naples only when it was necessary to support the Italian national team ". Therefore, in times of need. Diego, with a single sentence, divided the San Paolo, which was then his kingdom. Argentinos Juniors precocious talent, he won less than his class would allow him. And this is because he has never chosen to be part of a club of the high aristocracy of football. He landed in a Barcelona that was opposed to Real Madrid and, after suffering a very serious injury in the Liga (very hard foul by Goicoechea), he was bought by Napoli. He looked like a veteran, but he was only 24 years old. Maradona arrived at the foot of Vesuvius after a negotiation of almost three months, conducted with the usual diplomatic skill by Italo Allodi: the Neapolitan company organized a 'greeting' to the public on 5 July 1984 and it was love at first sight. That day, at the San Paolo stadium, in Fuorigrotta, 60,000 fans paid 3,000 lire each to see the 'Pibe' play. Maradona will give Napoli an Italian Super Cup, two league titles, a Uefa Cup, reciprocating the love of a city with stylistic feats, which is still handed down from father to son in a sort of ritual and virtual contemporaneity. From Forcella to Rione Sanità, the image of Diego is still printed on the walls or in the ex voto tabernacles of the people. A pagan divinity, to be placed side by side with the patron San Gennaro: that champion who always says what he thinks and thinks what he says, without mincing words, was a contemporary Masaniello. Diego finds his place alongside idols, his own and others, of the media power of Ernesto Che Guevara or Fidel Castro, of whom he will be almost inseparable friend for a long time. He will also marry the Palestinian cause, first with Yasser Arafat, then with Abu Mazen.
Irreverent, stormy, when he arrived in Naples he enjoyed the same popularity as Pope John Paul II or Michael Jackson. The sporting and cunning masterpiece was created in Mexico, just like Pele in 1970, among the colors of the Azteca stadium, the same one that 16 years earlier had hosted Italy-Germany 4-3. Diego, at the 1986 World Cup, against England - not just any opponent, due to the still fresh memory of the Falklands war - in front of cameras all over the world, mocked Peter Shilton, bagging the ball with a touch of his hand. For the Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser, the 'Pibe' had scored with his head: a decision that drives the English mad with rage. Then, at the end of the game, the Argentine admits that "La mano de Dios" had scored that goal, not him. To legitimize the Mexican masterpiece, the most beautiful goal in history, at least for Fifa, with Maradona who, in the same match, controls with a preciousness in midfield, starts with the ball glued to the magical left, overtakes the entire English defense - including the goalkeeper - and bags as he falls. Diego will drag Argentina, which also has a modest squad of players, to the world title. It will not be repeated in Italy '90, losing in the final against Germany due to a very questionable penalty which causes the hero who has suddenly become human to melt into angry tears. His football parable ends ingloriously, with a positivity to doping in the USA '94 World Cup. Diego accused Fifa and pointed the finger at the enemy of all time, the then president Sepp Blatter, guilty, according to him, for having induced him to get back on track and then for having betrayed him. His decline actually began in 1991, just a year after Napoli's second Scudetto, when he was arrested for possession of drugs. His coaching career is not up to par with that of a footballer. His existence hangs in the balance - suspended between life and death - on the evening of January 4, 2000, due to a "cocaine crisis", as admitted Jorge Romero, the doctor who saved him. He has collected loves, illegitimate children and then recognized, has filled newspapers, danced with Raffaella Carrà, was a showman, had books written full of episodes that, despite everything, will never obscure the light of his star.
