By BigEyeUg Team
The world of football has united in mourning one of the beautiful game’s true icons Diego Armando Maradona.
Diego Armando Maradona
Diego Maradona who died on Wednesday after suffering a heart attack is an Argentine soccer great who was among the best players ever and who led his country to the 1986 World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity.
Apparently, in deep grieve the world of soccer led by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) is still occupied with different styles that the world od football would best commemorate the fallen magical left-footed player.
Here are some of the themes so far tabled to eulogize the Late Diego Maradona before and after sending him off:
The office of Argentina’s president will decree three days of national mourning because of Maradona’s death on Wednesday, and the Argentine soccer association expressed its sorrow on Twitter.
Flags at half-mast outside the Camp Nou, Barcelona in honour of Diego Maradona.
Naples mayor Luigi De Magistris has urged Napoli to rename their San Paolo home after late club idol Diego Maradona.
Marseille manager Andre Villas-Boas has called on Fifa to retire the number 10 shirt from the game to honour Argentine great Diego Maradona.
Maradona died two weeks after being released from a Buenos Aires hospital following brain surgery.
Famed for the “Hand of God” goal in which he punched the ball into England’s net during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals, Maradona captivated fans over a two-decade career with a bewitching style of play that was all his own.
Although his reputation was tarnished by his addictions and an ill-fated spell in charge of the national team, he remained idolized in soccer-mad Argentina as the “Pibe de Oro” or “Golden Boy.”
The No. 10 he wore on his jersey became synonymous with him, as it also had with Pele, the Brazilian great with whom Maradona was regularly paired as the best of all time.
Diego Maradona’s health:
A ballooning waistline slowed Maradona’s explosive speed later in his career and by 1991 he was snared in his first doping scandal when he admitted to a cocaine habit that haunted him until he retired in 1997, at 37.
Hospitalized near death in 2000 and again in ’04 for heart problems blamed on cocaine, he later said he overcame the drug problem. Cocaine, he once said famously, had proven to be his “toughest rival.”
But more health problems followed, despite a 2005 gastric bypass that greatly trimmed his weight. Maradona was hospitalized in early 2007 for acute hepatitis that his doctor blamed on excessive drinking and eating.
Rest in Peace Diego Maradona!