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Argentina, a tsunami of silence and anguish

2020-11-26T16:25:43.150Z


The death of the star causes a trail of heartbreak and mourning through the streets of Buenos Aires and the rest of the country


Argentina entered this Wednesday into a pandemic of sadness.

The death of Diego Armando Maradona, a footballer turned national hero, caused a trail of grief and mourning through the streets of Buenos Aires and the rest of the country.

It was as if a part of Argentina went off with its idol.

The national government decreed three days of mourning and the fans of the Maradonian Church called for a rally tonight at the Buenos Aires Obelisk, the epicenter of the great Argentine demonstrations, waiting for the confirmation of the place where the wake will be held.

Diego will be one of those characters who never die.

It has been immense and it filled us with joy ", said this afternoon the president of the country, Alberto Fernández, who at the same time described as" incredible "that the death of the idol occurred on November 25, the same day of the death of the greatest reference Maradona's politician, Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

At noon on Wednesday, minutes after the media and social networks began to confirm the news, a strange tsunami of silence and anguish began to sweep the cities of the country.

"Is it true that Maradona died?", The older people dared to ask with disbelief to the younger ones, whom they saw connected to mobile devices.

Middle-aged people, the Maradonian generation that saw him in the splendor of Mexico 86, were the most shaken by shock.

Boys sitting on the curbs of the sidewalks, with their lost looks or tears in their eyes, became an easy postcard to detect in a Buenos Aires in which even the horns of the taxi drivers stopped sounding.

"He is the greatest in history, and he is ours," he said in the present tense, as if he did not accept his death or as if he welcomed immortality, a fan of Argentinos Juniors, in front of the stadium where Maradona debuted in First Division, in 1976.

Without knowing where to go, or waiting for the hour of the most massive gathering at the Obelisk, many Argentines began to gather in different parts of the city.

"We can't even hug each other," complained a fan, wearing a mask, referring to the protocols to avoid catching the coronavirus.

While some candles were being lit in front of the Diego Maradona stadium -exactly that of Argentinos-, another supporter with the Argentine national team shirt went to the door of the closed neighborhood where Maradona died, 50 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, and barely He was able to articulate a sentence before starting to cry.

"Cosmic kite (comet), fly calm," he said, referring to the radio story that described his second goal against England in Mexico 86.

"Argentina without God" could be read on the screen of the Crónica TV channel, while one of his teammates from the Argentine world champion team, Sergio Batista, used a very Maradonian phrase to refer to the death of the idol.

"I am destroyed, with a bullet in the chest," said who just succeeded Maradona as coach of the national team, in 2011.

Another of the former Mexico 86 champions, Oscar Ruggeri, learned of Maradona's death when he was on the air on a television show.

After the journalist reported “they tell me that Diego did not resist”, the former defender said “It cannot be, it cannot be”.

Former Argentina coach César Luis Menotti, who made Maradona debut for the national team in 1977, when Diego was only 17, used similar words: "I'm destroyed."

In the midst of mourning, the team from Maradona's heart, Boca Juniors, present in Brazil to play tonight in the Copa Libertadores round of 16 against Inter from Porto Alegre, asked Conmebol to postpone the match.

The South American soccer authorities accepted the request of the Argentine team and the match will be played on December 2.

In the midst of mourning, what was clear was that a large part of Argentina was preparing for a Wednesday when hundreds of thousands will sleep very little.

The farewell to Maradona will last several days.

Two of his clubs, Argentinos and Boca, offered their stadiums for a wake that will be massive.

Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2020-11-26

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