What would I want to tell my daughter about Diego Maradona?

 

I try telling my daughter about Diego Maradona but she shrugs and continues playing with her dolls. She escapes when I persist.

She never returns so I catch hold of her to tell her about Maradona's dribbles, his audacity, his shrewdness and the ‘Hand of God’. She listens as if un-listening.

She enquires about her birthday gift. I tell her I would buy her a no. 10 Argentina jersey with Maradona’s name printed at the back.

She makes faces and is not interested.

Knowing well that lives of great sportsmen can inspire, I hit the keyboard to draft a letter for her to read in the future… to tell her about Maradona hoping she would seek inspiration from it few years down the line.

That letter goes this way…

 My dear Vidita,

Diego Maradona? Who? You’d wonder.

Different things to different people, I’d say.

To some he was like a graceful dancer with the ball at his feet. To others he was a brilliantly gifted footballer but also flawed. To many like me, he was a genius who would sway, dribble, terrorize, twist, fly...

He tormented defenders and weaved magic to singlehandedly win his country a World Cup title in 1986. With that he struck an irreversible bond with fans providing them with immense joy. They would celebrate when he celebrated and would weep when he wept. 

More so, he made them fall in love with football all over again.

Now, let me tell you about the Hand of God incident.

It so happened that when Argentina played England in the quarterfinals of the World tournament in Mexico, the diminutive man rose above expectations to blatantly punch the ball into the goalpost and began celebrating exuberantly. 

The referee inadvertently awarded the goal to Maradona and they eventually won 2-1.

Did he cheat? Yes… but let me also tell you why he did so.

In the year 1982, Britain fought a needless war with Argentina killing many innocent people.

Did you get it now?

This was his way to get even.

Please don’t get believe if someone calls him a cheat because when asked if he would like to score another goal against England, he said – Yes, with my right hand. Such statements of his gave only punch lines to the media. 

But then… why was he called the best to have ever played the game? You’d ask…

I suggest you to watch the next goal he scored in that match. You can google and check it out for yourself. It’d be worth it even if you grow up being a non-soccer fan.

Collecting the ball mid-way, he exploded towards the opposition goalpost to beat six English players and score a spectacular solo goal. With my poor control over this language, I am unable to describe that run… and the way he darted into the opposition area with the ball... it was magical.

It appeared as if the English defenders were making way for him.

That my princess, was voted as the goal of the century.

More so on his being people’s champion…

As he was born in the ghettos of Buenos Aires, he was able to connect with the poorest of the poor. When he could have signed for many big clubs and earn millions, he signed for Napoli, a club whose fans mostly were poor people and helped the club win trophies.

He was audacious to such an extent that in a World Cup semi-final match against Italy in 1990, he asked the Napoli fans to support Argentina against their own country and they obliged.

Let me tell also you about his ugly side which emerged later.

Maradona was an eccentric and his later life was disappointing.

He wanted to perform miracles every time with the ball and acted in a self-sabotaging way. He saw the world through a self-created prism and thought his way was the right way. He did drugs which doused the once blazing fire inside him.

Argentina lost to West Germany in the final of the 1990 World Cup but instead of working hard to reclaim the lost glory he was thrown out of the next World Cup in 1994 after testing positive for steroids.

Getting stuck with their own identity is a tragic habit of most geniuses.

Here then… my dear, is an important lesson for you...

Your body is a temple... go granular… listen to it… respect it… trust it… acknowledge it… rest when you have to. Things may not be rosy all the time and at every stage you would need to fight a battle raging inside your heart. You need to evolve and not succumb to personal demons.

Just like how he did, you got to surprise everybody like how you surprised us by doing things when we thought you were too young to do them.

Lastly, please do remember him as someone who made mortals believe that anything that is humanly possible to think, is possible to achieve.

It was just that… the belief … that made him immortal.

I am sorry sweetheart to have written such a long one… your papa sometimes really gets long-winded.

Here’s one last time just so that you don’t forget…

the name is Maradona… Diego Maradona!!!

And he was the best ever!!

 

Yours always

Loving Papa