The Global Story: Maradona and the trial transfixing Argentina
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Why is Diego Maradona's trial significant in Argentina?
When Diego Maradona died in 2020, Argentinians took to the streets. united in both grief and celebration of a footballing legend. But it wasn't long before questions were being asked about the circumstances surrounding his death. Now a long-delayed trial involving his medical team is underway, and Maradona is once again the centre of attention.
What were the circumstances surrounding Maradona's death?
After a shocking photo taken hours before he died went viral, demonstrators descended on the courthouse demanding justice. So years after his death, why is Maradona's legacy still felt so powerfully by Argentinians? With me today is Marcela Mora y Araujo. She's a journalist in Buenos Aires who translated Diego Maradona's autobiography. Marcella, hi, good to have you on the pod. Thank you. I think most people would agree that Maradona is one of the best footballers we've ever seen. But when you think about him, often what comes to mind is not just his genius on the pitch, it's what he got up to off the pitch. Now you've actually met him quite a few times. Can you share with us what he was like?
What was Diego Maradona like off the pitch?
He was incredible. You could almost sense his presence somewhere. Even if you weren't right next to him, it was like the air changed around him. I first met him in the mid-90s. He was presenting a football players' union with all the bad boys of world football, Cantona and George Weah in Paris. They had decided to take on FIFA to complain about, the conditions under which players were made to play World Cups. He was in a five-star hotel and then he could sort of humming reggae songs. He said, let's go and get some pizza through a kind of back corridor. And then as we got to the front door, he just turned around to the small group of us and said, watch out, there's going to be a lot of people out here.
And suddenly we kind of stepped forward through this gateway into a completely different reality where literally hundreds of people surrounded him, like, you know, flies on honey. And I think the comparison with flies has been made several times since. I've seen it in films and by other authors. And he was just disappeared in the middle of the crowd. And you could see in his face that he was quite panicked. He was with his then manager, a guy called Guillermo Coppola, who stopped a pink Rolls Royce that happened to be driving by, a sort of open-roofed Rolls Royce, and whispered something in the driver's ear. Maradona and him hopped on and drove away. And it was quite extraordinary. And that was my very first sort of proper encounter with him.
But he was a man of contradictions when it came to his personality as well. Unbelievably talented, a genius, clever, funny, smart, but he could also be a bit nasty and vindictive.
I don't know about vindictive particularly, but he had an incredible memory. He remembered faces, people, and I don't think he forgave easily. You know, if he felt he'd been crossed by someone, he didn't forget it. He was incredibly generous as well. So a lot of his teammates, especially, and, you know, people close to him will give a... lavish examples of his generosity you know by someone's father a car he organized charity games and so on but at the same time you know in that very same trip where i first met him he was due to play in bosnia in a charity match and and actually just overslept after a sort of night of heavy partying and his entourage, because he always had an entourage, put a lot of pressure on the organisers of the charity game to book a charter private plane. He subsequently spent a lot of time in Cuba, a country which he said he loved. He had the Che Guevara's face tattooed on his leg. And at the same time,
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why is Diego Maradona's trial significant in Argentina?
1:06–1:31
2
What were the circumstances surrounding Maradona's death?
1:31–2:20
3
What was Diego Maradona like off the pitch?
2:20–6:53
4
How did Maradona's career lead to international stardom?
6:53–9:45
5
What controversies surrounded Maradona's later career?
9:45–12:10
6
How did Argentina react to Maradona's death?
12:10–28:09