One year after the death of Diego Maradona, the deep friendship he had with Fidel Castro is remembered

Is there a surefire formula for kicking penalties?

Fidel Castro’s question deserved a confessional answer from Diego Maradona.

– Before kicking, I look at the goalkeeper.

This canchero gesture -explained the Ten- helps to intuit the side to which the goalkeeper will move. Then, the ball is thrown to the opposite.

– What if he stands still?

– I hit the stick of my choice hard.

The leader of the Cuban Revolution took out of nowhere a notebook and a pen. As a diligent student, he wrote down the formula and then solemnly announced:

– I’ll try it tomorrow.

Dawn that July 29, 1987 in Havana and with the first rays of the sun ended an unusual audience, of just over five hours, which had marked the beginning of the friendship between two universal figures.

A friendship that only death could dissolve twenty-nine years, three months and 24 days later.

The man who in 1986 masterfully led the Argentine team to the conquest of the World Cup played in Mexico also began to write with his boots the best chapters in the history of Naples.

On May 10, 1987, he led the feat that ended with obtaining the scudetto, and a month later, on June 13, he raised the Italian Cup.

Maradona then had football at his feet, but in his head there was another challenge. And it was far from the four lines.

He wanted to meet another ten, the brain that on January 1, 1959 overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and would be president of Cuba for 50 years.

The audience in one of the halls of the Palace of the Revolution he did not respect any protocol.

It was an endearing friendship at first sight from the moment that Commander Fidel, 1.91 meters tall, wrapped his huge arms around the Argentine captain, who was barely 1.65 meters tall.

And then they spoke non-stop of the divine and the human.

Some later revealed that the host dazzled them with his most treasured cooking recipes and knowledge of world cuisine.

“Looked like a chef”Said someone, praising the precision with which he dictated the portions of the ingredients, their cuts and cooking times.

Without being able to corroborate it was the version according to which some sheets were detached from the notebook of the leftist leader to allow Doña Tota, the footballer’s mother, and Claudia, his wife, They will take note of the culinary secrets of the State.

Understandable, because at that time everyone present was intoxicated with admiration.

Shortly before saying goodbye, Maradona received one of the most precious trophies of his life: the emblematic olive green cap of his new best friend.

The meetings were repeated in the next 39 years and the relationship was strengthened from 2000 when ‘el Pelusa’ settled on the island in search of the cure for his drug addiction.

He was 40 years old and the very fresh memory of October 25, 1997, the date he decided to hang up his boots in Boca Juniors.

He had started his career as a coach with more lows than highs and one of the things that caused him most pride was to say that Castro called him in the mornings to encourage him in his rehabilitation and to talk a little about politics and sports.

Both were present at private and public meetings to which the press had access for little more than 29 years.

The Argentine carried the Cuban leader not only in his heart. One day He decided to have his face tattooed on the calf of his left leg.

The connection was like an Open Sesame that put Diego to become intimate with rulers related to Castroism and Fidel in the middle of the area of ​​the media sports passions.

– Diego is a great friend and very noble too. There is no doubt that he is a wonderful athlete and maintains a friendship with Cuba without any material gain for him.

But on November 25, 2016, 10,712 days after the first magical encounter in the Palace of the Revolution, Fidel Castro left this world. He was 90 years old.

– I have cried uncontrollably. I’m going to Cuba to say goodbye to my friend.

At 56, Maradona was far from the cheerful, restless and elusive soccer player that Fidel managed to catch with an affectionate hug that Caribbean summer night of 1987.

The gratitude of the Argentine who always expressed in each meeting, he did not fail to dismiss who he considered his second father.

– Fidel advised me, he opened the doors of Cuba to me when in Argentina there were clinics that closed them to me because they did not want Maradona’s death. And Fidel opened them to me from the heart.

Is there an infallible formula to be myth beyond life?

The Diego of the Argentines took to test it exactly four years after Fidel’s departure, on November 25, 2020.

That was 365 days ago today. (D)