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Buenos Aires, Argentina – As Luciano Perez walked with his son Dante towards Argentina’s Presidential Palace, where Diego Maradona’s coffin was on display, he took comfort in the crowd that had gathered along Avenida de Mayo.
He was happy to see that tens of thousands of people had come forward to honor the football icon he grew up with and to whom he owed his love of football.
But when he entered Casa Rosada and passed the closed coffin, covered with the Argentine flag and shirts worn by El Diego, his emotions darkened.
“I couldn’t meet him and see him, now, in a coffin, it was just terrible,” said Perez, 36.
Maradona’s coffin was draped in the national flag and soccer jerseys [Presidency of Argentina via EPA]
Argentina did not expect it. The sudden loss of Maradona seems too much to deal with, too raw to put into words for this football-obsessed nation.
A genius on the pitch, the player who took the national team to skyrocketing heights during the 1986 World Cup, Maradona’s name has become synonymous with his native soil.
Now the country is engulfed in sharp pain, punctuated by the kind of song and dance that was reserved for its meteoric purposes. The fans needed to celebrate El Diego, it was like balm for the pain.
Tens of thousands of people gathered along Avenida de Mayo [Juan Mabromata/AFP]
Some of the heightened emotions turned into confrontations with the police, as some fans tried to make their way into the presidential palace early in the morning. Others sought to cross the line that police had cut off as the end of visiting hours approached.
Maradona died Wednesday from a heart attack. His body was transported by procession to Casa Rosada after dark, as thousands sought the company of other mourners at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires. Many of them have moved to La Casa Rosada, to queue for the chance to spend a few seconds near their idol.
The presidential palace said hundreds of thousands of people lined up in dozens of blocks to bid farewell to Maradona in an “organized and emotional” manner. But he said as visiting hours came to an end on Thursday afternoon, people attempted to pierce the frontline to gain access.
The tour was briefly suspended, then fans tried again and made it in. Violent clashes also erupted between fans who did not enter and the police.
The family decided to suspend the ceremony after the clashes and Maradona’s body was transported to Bella Vista cemetery in the province of Buenos Aires, where her parents are buried.
Local media reported that the coffin would travel to the cemetery via 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires’ iconic avenue, so the crowds lining it could get a final glimpse of their idol.
All along the road, the Argentines gave a last throaty cry for El Diego. They climbed the road, waved Argentinian flags, the shirts of the country’s football clubs and shook their arms until they couldn’t take it anymore. Then, like lightning, he was gone.
Maradona died of a heart attack on Wednesday, sparking a wave of grief across Argentina [Natalie Alcoba/Al Jazeera]
“Today there is no jersey. Today there is no political party. That’s what Diego has been his whole life. He unified Argentines, ”said Nahuel De Lima, 30, the first in line at the vigil, and who came from Villa Fiorito, the same poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires where Maradona grew up.
Behind him was Dolores Morales, who held up an old magazine cover from the winning days of the World Cup.
“Sometimes you don’t know how to describe it, but he’s the greatest, he’s a god. And there will be a day for Maradona, remember that, ”Morales said.
“Maradona represents Argentina,” said Martin Rabassano. “Did he have any contradictions? Of course, like the whole world. He transcended football. It’s much more than a bullet. So he has my respect, and his family has my respect. I had to be here.
Just like Perez, with his son Dante. His love of football and Maradona stayed with him all his life.
“It was my childhood. My adolescence. The reason I played football, ”said Perez, who is from the Buenos Aires suburb of Lanus. “He had a different magnetism. He’s a guy who comes from below, who sympathizes with the worker, with the non-working person, the rich person, with anyone.
“He’s genuine. This is the most important thing. “
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