The legendary football hero was arguably one of the world’s best, says ARJUN PEREIRA, who analyses how he fared off the field
Everyone, young, middle-aged or old has heard of football’s legendary star, Diego Maradona. He was an international sports superstar from the ’70s onwards till his tragic passing away on November 25, 2020.
In his later years, he was remembered as a paunchy, jovial man, who pulled no punches to say what he wanted to, when he wanted to…and apparently he had lots of ‘fun’ doing so, as well.
As a footballer, he was a prodigy, who at the tender age of eight was mistaken by coaches and scouts as playing football of the caliber of a grown man. When he was asked for his ID card by coaches and scouts, he said he did not have one; naturally, he was just an eight-year-old boy enjoying himself on a makeshift football ground.
Nevertheless, did we really know Diego Maradona as the true person he was, minus all the glamour, hero-worshipping, adulation and international fame that surrounded him? I think almost no one really knew the true Maradona.
What was he like towards his family? What was he like in private? What was he like when he was not playing professional football? He was an enigmatic figure to say the least. He seemed to have had some kind of inborn talent as his extraordinary moves seemed to come naturally to him, even while he was growing up in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His rags-to-riches story is one of inspiration, of dreams fulfilled and more. In short, it is the stuff that movies are made of.
However, do we really see the infinite hours he put in to his training, all the trials and tribulations he endured everyday to be a professional footballer so that he could emerge at the top of his field? It seems he was simply born to play football professionally with the world’s best.
The highs and lows of his life are perhaps something that you can never find emulated in any other man’s life. He got high on the pitch by scoring some of the most breathtaking goals in the history of football. He also got high off the pitch by indulging in cocaine, alcohol, affairs and other stimulants.
Also read, Sports is a Spiritual Experience (yourspositively.com)
In his later years, he did do a fair amount of charity work and visited lesser footballing nations like our very own India to set up football academies.
You might well ask why I am trying to analyse Diego Maradona’s personality. That’s because, like every football fan, I too adored him all through my growing up years and still love to see old video clips of his legendary games. Personally, I see him as one of us — a flawed, but well-meaning genius. And that is the reason why I think almost everyone on Planet Earth can relate to him. After all, we all have little shades of a Diego Maradona deep within us.
Here he was, a proverbial underdog who did not come from a privileged background. Most of us are like him – ordinary individuals living our relatively anonymous lives. But like Maradona, all of us are capable of achieving spectacular accomplishments, but like him, we are also capable of getting embroiled in the temptations of this materialistic world. None of us are perfect and certainly Maradona was not, either.
While Maradona would get so ecstatic and experience such exhilaration on the football field, in real life, he balked at facing everyday realities that came along with being a married man and taking care of his daughters and all the other mundane things that happen in everyday life. His mistake was that he thought life too should be like a spectacular, energetic and noisy football match. He simply couldn’t deal with the mundane, ordinary stuff that goes on in everyone’s life. He could not strike a balance in the fine art of achieving one’s dreams and yet remaining unaffected by his accomplishments.
And that really was his tragic flaw. Diego Maradona had the world at his feet, but struggled to have his own feet planted firmly on the ground at all times.
But all these realisations will still never lower his legendary status. He will remain the best footballer to have ever graced the soil of this planet, despite his many shortcomings.
Arjun Pereira, a writer and editor, is also a singer, composer, lyricist and guitarist. He has worked for leading publishing houses and corporates.
(Featured Image Courtesy: New York Times)