Maradona In The Flesh

I've seen Diego Maradona twice 'in the flesh'.

The first time was in 1979 at Hampden Park in Glasgow where the rising young star of Argentine football, who was just 18 at the time, came on and rang rings around the Scotland team before scoring himself to cap a well-deserved 1-3 away victory.  

The second was in Buenos Aires in 2014 when I visited La Bombonera stadium to watch Maradona's old team Boca Juniors against Tigre, if I remember correctly.

Anyway Maradona came out with the home side, even though he had no formal coaching position and lined up with all the players for the official photos before the match got underway.

While the score was still 0-0 Maradona left the Boca Juniors dugout to walk casually around the perimeter of the pitch to take the applause of his adoring fans - who treated him like football royalty while the match was still underway.

Boca Juniors won the game and Maradona came on to the pitch again at the end of the game to round off what was a wonderful, memorable, truly bizarre day out. 

But this helps explain why Argentina's president, Alberto Fernandez, has announced 3 days of national mourning for the country's fallen footballing hero.