All his life, Diego Armando Maradona has impressed with his speed on the pitch and fascinated by a life led at full speed, day and night.
Paradoxically, his last weeks will have passed in slow motion.
His last public appearance was only a bad omen.
This October 30, the former n ° 10 celebrated his 60th birthday at the Juan-Carmelo-Zerillo stadium in La Plata, about fifty kilometers from Buenos Aires.
A surreal ceremony in an empty enclosure organized before a meeting of Gimnasia La Plata, the team he coached but which he had not attended any match for seven months.
Supported by two people, he seemed to be seeking his balance, his back bent, his step unsteady.
Fans of the Pibe de Oro flocked this Thursday to Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, where the fiery chapel of the icon was erected.
/ AFP / Argentine Presidency
The twilight of a god who still kept smiling once his black mask had been lowered, seated on a strange white throne placed next to a sideline where he would never take a seat.
The image had frozen Argentines and football lovers.
She made people fear the worst rather than bringing reassuring news from the "Pibe de Oro".
Three days later, the 1986 world champion was hospitalized with anemia and dehydration.
A CT scan revealed the presence of a subdural hematoma, a pocket of blood formed under the skull.
He was operated on immediately before leaving the hospital after eight days.
The departure of the ambulance was scrutinized by all the cameras in the country but no image of the one whose life was a real reality TV had been captured.
Only his personal doctor, Dr Leopoldo Luque, had posted on Instagram a photo where he was seen next to Maradona, a frozen smile on his lips and bandages on his head above a face with a slightly waxy complexion.
A cliché that would ulcerate the clan of the icon of Naples, forcing the practitioner to apologize.
"I thought it was an image that would erase the other that Diego had left the day of the match against Patronato, justified Leopoldo Luque by explaining that his famous patient was at the origin.
Obviously, I never measured the size of the photo, the dimension it was going to have ”.
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Leaving the hospital at the end of a stay prolonged by problems linked to his forced abstinence from alcohol and drugs, Diego Maradona had joined for his convalescence a wealthy villa in Tigre, a small town near Buenos Aires.
"The idea is that Diego is surrounded by the people who are closest to him because these are the links that can help him to recover, in addition to the psychological and medical follow-up", slipped Carlos Diaz, a psychologist part of the medical team dedicated to Maradona.
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It is indeed under close surveillance but in great intimacy that the idol spent the last days of his life.
Very few people have had access to the one who loved a lot but also fell out a lot, especially with his first wife Claudia Villafane and their two daughters Dalma and Giannina, just like his lifelong agent, Guillermo Coppola.
Among the authorized visitors were however Veronica Ojeda, his companion from 2005 to 2013, as well as Dieguito Fernando, their seven-year-old son.
Gone back to bed after breakfast, he never woke up
In the ultra-secure house where the fear of Covid-19 is everywhere, Diego Maradona leads a very calm life between care, rest and a few outings to take short walks.
A departure for Cuba to continue his convalescence is mentioned by his doctors.
The house is also occupied by Maximiliano Pomargo, the brother-in-law of Matias Morla, Maradona's lawyer, and his eternal cook, Monona, whom the former footballer considered to be a second mother.
Tuesday evening, the ex-n ° 10 had received the visit of his nephew Johnny Espósito.
He was the last person to see him alive.
According to the first elements of the investigation, Maradona would have got up early this Wednesday, November 25 as he had become accustomed to.
He would have had breakfast before going back to bed.
A sleep from which he never woke up.
His psychologist and psychiatrist found him inanimate around 11:30 a.m.
Called for help, his nephew and one of his assistants try to revive him. A nurse and a doctor living in the neighborhood also intervened. In vain. The medical examiners quickly conclude that a natural death. The first echoes of the autopsy suggest "chronic congestive heart failure which generated acute pulmonary edema". A sequence of events that angered Matias Morla. "It is inexplicable that for twelve hours my friend did not have the attention or control of health personnel dedicated to these purposes," wrote the lawyer in a statement released on Thursday. The ambulance took over half an hour to arrive, which was criminal nonsense. This fact should not be overlooked and I will ask that the consequences be studied until the end ”.