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BUENOS AIRES – People laid flowers and lit candles under Diego Maradona’s mural outside the stadium that bears his name. A man cried inconsolably.
At the Obelisk in central Buenos Aires, another man waved a banner depicting Mr. Maradona saying, “God is Argentinian.”
On Wednesday there was a feeling of disbelief in Argentina as rumor spread that the soccer star had died that morning at his home in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires. The government has declared three days of mourning.
Often regarded as one of the best players in the game, Mr. Maradona was revered by fellow Argentines – not only for his prowess on the pitch, but for his rise from poverty to global stardom. He remained a national hero even as his personal life, which included long waves of drug and alcohol abuse, made him tabloid fodder around the world.
As people gathered across the country to honor the man often referred to simply as ‘El Diego’, some chose the Buenos Aires stadium where he made his debut in 1976, as a young player for Argentinos Juniors, and which was later renamed for him. .
“The first time I saw him I couldn’t believe it,” said Hugo Daniel Santiuste, 66, who said he saw Mr Maradona’s second game at the stadium. “I had never seen anything like this.”
But even Argentines born too late to see him play in person were in mourning.
“I have the impression that a member of my family has just died,” said Joaquín López Castan, 19. “All my life I have wanted to play football like Maradona.”
Mr. Maradona had brain surgery earlier this month and has had a number of medical problems in the past. But her death, which a spokesperson said was due to a heart attack, still came as a shock to many.
“It was Maradona, he always managed to pull through,” said 19-year-old João Dejtiar.
Several locations around Buenos Aires have become outdoor mourning spaces for fans, including the morgue where officials brought her body; his modest home in Villa Fiorito, the poor region where he grew up; and La Bombonera stadium, where he previously played as a member of the Boca Juniors club.
Hundreds of people also gathered in downtown Buenos Aires as the government planned what was to be a massive revival at the presidential palace on Thursday.
At 10 p.m., people cheered from their balconies in honor of Mr Maradona, who wore a traditional playmaker’s No.10 jersey.
As Wednesday turned into Thursday, people didn’t seem in a rush to get home. Hundreds of people sang and sang songs for Mr. Maradona outside the presidential palace as some began to line up for the vigil.
“Of course Maradona was the greatest football player this country has ever seen, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. There is something that makes him so much more than that, ”said Alejandro Wall, sports journalist.
“Diego is Argentina’s great narrator,” he said.
Mr Maradona is invariably remembered for leading Argentina to victory at the 1986 World Cup. In the infamous quarter-final against England he scored one of the finest goals in the world. history of the match, as well as an illegal hand goal. (“He was scored a bit with Diego’s head and a bit with God’s hand,” he later said of the goal.)
The English were furious, but in Argentina – which still suffers from the humiliation of its 1982 defeat to Britain in the short war against the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls Malvinas and claims to be its own – Mr Maradona was praised.
“A narrative is created that the goal was not illegal because in reality it was God who dispensed justice after the defeat of the 1982 war,” said Lívia Gonçalves Magalhães, historian at Federal University Fluminense in Brazil studying the intersection of football and politics. in South America.
“It was the happiest moment of my life,” said Juan José Azcurra, 67, his tears giving way to a smile as he remembered the goal. “I will never forget him.”
This World Cup was doubly sweet because “no one trusted the team and in the end everything they did was wonderful,” said Veronica Moreira, an anthropologist who studies sports at the National Council of the scientific and technical research, an Argentinian government agency. Argentina’s victory in the final against West Germany cemented Mr Maradona’s position as the leader who led the underdog team to victory.
Overcoming obstacles was a constant theme in Mr. Maradona’s life story. His rise out of poverty was one of the reasons many Argentines continued to identify with him even as he became a global celebrity.
“He never stopped being part of the people,” said Gastón Tescusinsky, 44, who has a tattoo of Mr. Maradona on his arm. “He’s always been Fiorito’s kid.”
Mr Maradona wore his leftist politics on his sleeve, and Ms Magalhães noted that he would publicly criticize the executives of FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body, “regardless of the repercussions”.
“Maradona was a contradictory character who elicited a lot of empathy,” said Rodrigo Daskal, a professor who is a researcher at the Center for Sports Studies at the National University of San Martín. “Maradona has always been authentic and has never tried to dress any part of her life.”
Mr. Maradona’s outspokenness about his struggles with alcohol and drugs was appreciated by many of his fans, especially those with experience with drug addiction. “My old man had drug problems, who am I to judge Maradona?” said Pablo Neyret, 42, whose eyes filled with tears.
Songs have been written in honor of Mr. Maradona and some of his phrases have entered the daily lexicon of Argentines. One was “they cut my legs off,” he said after being kicked out of the 1994 World Cup for doping.
Victoria Fassa, 43, called Mr Maradona “a passionate rebel above all else and said what he thought without caring about the consequences”.
She added: “He was 100% Argentinian.”
Manuela Andreoni has contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Anatoly Kurmanaev from Caracas, Venezuela.
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