The father of Argentina great Diego Maradona died on Thursday at the age of 87 after a battle against heart and respiratory problems, local media reported.
Don Diego stood by 1986 FIFA World Cup winner Maradona throughout a turbulent career during which the player dazzled on the field, but also succumbed to drug and alcohol abuse.
Maradona rushed to Argentina from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, earlier this month to be with his father as his health deteriorated, having always regretted not seeing his mother, known affectionately as Dona Tota, in the days before she died in 2011.
PAIN AND RELIEF
Soon after returning to Buenos Aires he expressed his pain at watching his father’s life ebb away, but relief at seeing him in time.
“I’m calm after not having managed to get here and give my old lady a kiss,” Maradona told a local radio station after visiting his father in hospital earlier this month.
Don Diego, a factory worker, moved to Buenos Aires from the northern province of Corrientes in the 1950s, raising eight children in the Villa Fiorito shanty town on the southern edge of the capital.
His first child, Diego, was born in 1960.
FIRST TRIALS
When Maradona was nine a hard-up Don Diego refused to let him attend trials at first-division Argentinos Juniors because there was not enough money in the sport, but he shone for the Villa Fiorito team and Argentinos Juniors scout Francis Cornejo, the man who discovered him, persuaded Don Diego to give way.
Pelusa (Fluff), the nickname Don Diego and Dona Tota gave Maradona, played for the club’s junior side Cebollitas (Little Onions) and they launched him on the journey to soccer’s summit.
A quiet man, Don Diego occasionally cooked asados (barbecues) for the Argentina national team, even on tours such as the 1986 FIFA World Cup triumph in Mexico.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS