Something of a screw-up mixed with embarrassment. Before talking about the protagonists and relative events, it would be well to draw a parallel, to consider an analogy.

The birthday party of a big star; at a top location, with many guests and a first class buffet. And superb cake as closing dish with which to underline the importance of the event. A few hours before the ceremony however the baker informs those concerned that the desert will not be provided.due to a sudden transport strike that prevents the delivery of the necessary ingredients. An odd excuse which however can suffice. The party takes place nevertheless; but what to do about the missing and highly simbolic closing dish, which besides assuaging the guest’s taste budds, has always been considered the most apt way to close such an event? Now this somewhat bizzar story aptly sums up the sense of what took place at Maradona-day, a tribute to the great champion with the objective of withdrawing the number ten shirt from the Argentine national football team. He ( the noted personality), 41 years of age, waited down by problems with drugs and a poorly managed fame, wears for the last time the blue-white “camiseta”. His teammates and adversaries of past times today are there, ready to celebrate him for the last time as an immortal figure of football, an outright phenomena without limits to space or time. All this in front of a public of some 60 thousand fans, all crowded into the “Bombonera” (an imposing structure), the stadium of Buenos Aires where Diego with the shirt of the Boca Juniors made his debute in the major league. All fine and dandy therefore? At last no. As mentioned in the analogy above the cult-object, that is the final treat is somehow missing. The cherry on the cake. That which will prevent Maradona from savoring in full the great kermess being held in his honor. In a dry press release curiously subtle in it’s proximity to the event, the FIFA lets it be known that it will not be possible for the number 10 shirt to be withdrawn from the national team, the number that in the past had always been worn by the “Pibe de Oro”. It has already been included in the official list for the world cup of 2002, with a numeration that runs from 1 to 23. Since the Argentine national football team had failed to make a specific request, things will stay as they are as it is against FIFA policy to “upset” the existing order of things. A ridiculous comedy therefore which conceals in reality a variety of “political” positions. The federation never liked the rebel Maradona . Uneasy statements were made, which grew into reciprocal hatred and frequent arguments that Diego carried on especially when at the height of his carreer. But no sooner had the fortunes of this South American football star begun to decline, than began the counter offensive of football’s foremost organism. This led to the somewhat paranoid charge on the football player’s part; that his many fallouts with doping charges were the scientific result of a plot to undermine him. This was the final act of “castration” orchestrated by the FIFA on occasion of his going away party, especially considering the timing, and can therefore be considered a final slap, since it’s a measure that could easily have been avoided had the protagonist been someone else. The Argentine federation was a knowing accomplice to this farce, which while formally rendering its dues to its most outstanding of champions, “forgot” (!!?) to forward a request for withdawal of the mithical number 10 shirt to the highest football organism. A ridiculous though inevitable compromise on the part of a body which finds itself pressed between the contradictory requirements of, on the one hand heeding the great popularity of Diego in Argentina while on the other, submitting to the underlying hierarchical order of the football body. So as to summerize it all and make a philosophical comparison concerning his life choices, it can be said that here too Maradona was forced into making an incomplete show. He, a great talent notwithstanding his stocky build.He, the left foot of God, victim of a vicious cycle of drugs, alcohol and women. He a Napolitan by adoption who before the 1990 world cup final , on world television, clearly calls repeatedly “Hijos de P…” the Italian public which was whistling at the national anthom of his country. He, who twice had reached the highest of heights in Italy, had above all also reached the highest in the world, in the sense of Paradise, very near as it were to sliding down to hell for health problems. So it is at this time more than ever, with the final turning off of the spotlights, that the real game of the greatest football player of the century begins. Up untill now the champion had always managed to find an escape route in order not to have to face up to his most important problems. True friends, and many presumed, money, fame and the reaction of the public whom he dazzled with the magic of his feet, all combined to shield him from this. To end up being forgotten can be very rough on a man once he has to try to cut out a normal existence for himself, when he can no longer fall back on the spotlights for comfort. The Maradona of today , thanks to the extreme choices he made, is at risk, both in phsycological terms as well as medical. His anticonformism at all costs, soon will no longer be newsworthy; rather will be treated as the antics of an ex-champion who still suffers from protagonism. So the great love of the 60 thousand at the “Bombonera” stadium could easily transform itself into the worst of possible deseases, for a man used to the spotlight who has to come to grips with indifference. Good luck Diego. Now more than ever is your moment of truth.

(Trad. Interpres sas, Giussano)