The article “The Two Sides of Diego Maradona” provided a deep insight into Diego’s personal life and his struggles, as well as the god-like (or simply just God) figure that Maradona was to fans across the world. Pretty early on into the article there is this quote, “What the people have to understand is that Maradona is not a machine for making them happy.” I felt as though this captured what the theme behind the article was, that Maradona was a unifying figure for many of Argentina’s fans just with his pure talent. Maradona was captivating and could make people forget the hardship they themselves were going through or more broadly what Argentina had just been through just with his skill alone. A great example of this would be Maradona’s halftime showcases of skill. “In a small way, he became famous for this. Crowds would protest when halftime ended.” Even with Maradona being the figure that he was at the time in Argentina, nicknamed “God” and was so famous that “I don’t mean “people mobbing him at airports.” I mean, “the military junta that governs Argentina has diverted national funds to stop him from transferring to Barcelona because he is seen as a natural resource.” I mean, “the military might physically stop him from leaving the country.” Diego was seen as his more personal side, someone who struggled with his fame and would escape Esquina to get away from it. The drive to be so great I think comes from this more personal side, remembering the poverty that Diego had growing up and him seeing soccer as an escape and a way to prove himself. I think from this, Diego became this figure of “look at what I did, and children in the slums can do it too”, and he was loved and hated for this. “a significant number of Argentine fans turned on him for doing stuff like “taking a vacation to Las Vegas and being photographed in a swimming pool.” It wasn’t always easy being the golden child” Even through these controversies and how much of a dividing figure Maradona was, it never felt like Diego forgot where he came from or to stop being genuine to himself, his fans, or Argentina as a whole.
