Editorial staff. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The word "revolution" refers to battle tracks, not necessarily political, but also social. There is no doubt that Diego Maradona marked a before and after in international soccer. His great ability with the ball on his left foot, his leadership on and off the field and the way he fought against the highest body of world soccer, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA, for its French acronym), make the legacy of the Argentinean No. 10 eternal.
This morning, it was confirmed that the former Napoli, Barcelona and Boca Juniors player passed away at the age of 60 after suffering a cardiorespiratory arrest. The press officer of the famous Argentinean, Sebastián Sanchi, said that at least four ambulances went to Maradona's house in Buenos Aires; however, it was not possible to do anything.
At the beginning of November, Diego Maradona was hospitalized for ten days due to a decompensation, although he was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma at the hospital.
The departure of "El Pelusa" immediately brings to mind one of the great episodes in the history of world soccer when, in 1986, Argentina was crowned at the Azteca Stadium to lift its second World Cup with the star as captain.
Perhaps the victory over Germany in the final is not the most memorable in Diego Armando's career, but the quarterfinal game on June 22 of the same championship against England, when he scored the two winning goals, in a game politically marked by the dispute over the Maldives Islands.
Maradona dragged the ball from midfield and eluded all the English opponents until he reached the rival area, where he took out the goalkeeper, dodged him and, sweeping, pushed the ball in to score for the Albiceleste.
At the 51st minute, after a series of rebounds in the area of the English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, who was 20 centimeters taller than the "10", the ball was left in the air and both players got up to compete for it. Diego Maradona pretended to hit it with his head; however, he did it with his hand and ended up scoring to put Argentina on its way to the world title.
Maradona was always more of a rebel than a sergeant. After the World Cup, he led Italian Serie A side Napoli, a modest team with a small budget, to compete and win the "Scudetto" in 1987 against the mighty Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, framing the soccer war of the south against the Italian north.
After the title, Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi tried to bring the Argentine star into his ranks, but he refused and renewed his contract with lowly Napoli until 1993. The alleged links with the Sicilian mafia and the high esteem of the people soon made Naples known as "Diego's city".
On November 25, 2016, one of the great figures of world politics and close friend of the one from Buenos Aires also passed away: Fidel Castro, at the age of 90.
In 1987 they met, when Maradona declared to have an admiration for the Cuban, as well as for Ernesto "Ché" Guevara, whom he had tattooed on his arm as a symbol of Latin American liberation, a movement that he accompanied in sports, when FIFA did not allow American soccer players to compete for the most valuable awards, of which he even declared that both he and Mexican Hugo Sánchez would have Golden Balls if the body had not been exclusive.
Fidel Castro supported Maradona in 2000, when in January he checked himself into a rehabilitation center for drug detoxification in Cuba. Diego Maradona made no secret of the fact that, in addition to being left-handed on the playing field, he sympathized with leftist ideals in Latin America; he gave a toilet bowl to the Cuban president, whom he named his "second father", arguing that, every time he used it, he would dedicate the act to the United States and George Bush.
Maradona also said he felt persecuted by FIFA when, in the 1994 World Cup in the United States, an anti-doping control put an end to his career in the Argentine National Team. On July 30 of that year, four days after Argentina beat Nigeria 2-1 in the tournament, Diego Armando Maradona declared: "I didn't take drugs, they cut off my legs", after the captain's urine tested positive for ephedrine at halftime of that game.
FIFA asked the Argentine Football Association (AFA) to withdraw the star from the competition and, thus, not to see him wear the Argentine national team again. The extraordinary thing about the case is that it was at halftime of a match, when, normally, anti-doping controls are carried out at the end of the matches, in addition to the fact that, in that game, a nurse entered the field to remove the player's arm.
The basis for such an act is based on speculation of a plot against Maradona for playing the World Cup on U.S. soil, after declaring himself a supporter of Fidel Castro's ideals.
November 25 will mark history and will redefine the word "revolution" in the dictionary, adding moments in which two banners of ideals and beliefs departed to leave a legacy in two spheres: the ball and the planet.
