This article was published in the "Sanlian Life Weekly" No. 49, 2020, the original title of the original article is "Maradona Religion: From Personality to Divinity", it is strictly forbidden to reprint it privately, and infringement must be investigated
For many, Maradona is a religious experience. In the history of football, only he can be a religion, and the name is connected to God.
Reporter/Zhang Xingyun
On 27 July 1984, Maradona, who had just joined Napoli, trained with his teammates
Become a "religion"
In 1993, Maradona left Sevilla and returned to Argentina to join the Newell Old Boys Club in Rosario, Argentina's second largest city, where he returned to Argentina after 10 years of playing in Europe. Maradona, who has fallen back to the roots, has received an unprecedented welcome at Rosario, attracting 40,000 spectators even with a regular training session.
Later, after two more seasons at boca juniors after the 1994 World Cup turmoil, on October 29, 1997, the day before his 37th birthday, Maradona announced his retirement. However, leaving the stadium completely is only the beginning of Maradona's constant deification.
On October 30, 1998, on the day of Maradona's 38th birthday, initiated by Argentine sports journalists Amez, Belon and Campomalo, a special "religion" was established in Rosario, Maradona. They replaced the two letters in the middle of the Spanish god "Dios" with "Number 10" and changed it to "D10S" as a sect symbol, and then built the Church of Maradona in Rosario, creating their own way of worship, precepts, and the era counted from the birth of Maradona.
The followers of Maradona have two regular holidays every year, one is "Christmas Eve" on October 29, the eve of Maradona's birthday, and the other is "Easter" on June 22, the day Maradona led Argentina to defeat England in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 1986.
Everyone who joins the Maradona religion is baptized. The baptismal ceremony is special, the new believers need to take off their tops, change into Maradona's No. 10 shirt, copy the "Hand of God" of the 1986 World Cup with a real ball on the football field, and then kneel in front of the altar containing the sculpture of Maradona's head, touch the supreme "Bible" – Maradona's autobiography "I Am Diego" – and swear: "Our Diego shot on the pitch, your left hand, which is regarded as sacred, you did miracles, and your achievements will be remembered in this world." As if your achievements were remembered in heaven, we can be happy every day and forgive the journalists, just as we forgive the Napoli mafia, guide us away from temptation and free us from Avilange (former FIFA president), Diego. ”
On 25 July 1984, Maradona participated in the napoli team's daily training
In 2008, Argentina held its first Maradona wedding, married to two Mexican believers. The couple swore together in front of maradona's altar that they would always love each other and abide by the creed of the Church of Maradona, and declared that Diego, the king of football, would always be the best player in the past, now and in the future.
At the end of the wedding ceremony, the Maradona clergy handed a white football to the couple and said to them, "Remember, football cannot be defiled." ”
Maradona also occasionally sends videos of Maradona's religious services. According to Argentina's "Independent", there are more than a hundred thousand Maradona believers around the world, from Norway to Mozambique, from Singapore to South Africa, Argentina has the largest number of believers, followed by Spain and Mexico.
Many professional players are Maradona Churchists, Tevez and Messi both hold Maradona's certificate of accession, Ronaldinho, Maradona's opponent in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals, British player Lineker, and former NBA star Ginobili, are also believers.
For many, Maradona is a religious experience. In the history of football, only he can be a "religion" whose name is forever associated with God. In fact, there are many nicknames for "God" in football: Italian full-back Renzo de Vecchi has been called "Son of God" by Milan fans, and Inter legend Mario Corso's nickname is "God's left foot", but people have never felt that Maradona is part of God.
Pablo Seman, an Argentine anthropologist who specializes in the grassroots religions of Argentina and Brazil, says that Argentine culture is "cosmopolitan, holistic, and interpersonal" and that people are reluctant to distance themselves from the gods they believe in, which is where Europeans often fail to understand Latin Americans — politics, religion and culture have no clear boundaries in Latin America.
Argentine writers, photographers, singers, painters, directors or dancers draw inspiration from football as an art form. Charly Garcia was Maradona's earliest friend in the Argentine music scene and wrote Maradona Blues; Argentine singer Rodrigo's Hand of God is widely sung. In addition, there are many comics, musicals, plays adapted from Maradona, and there are countless murals and posters, the most famous of which should be in Buenos Aires, where there is a portrait of Maradona imitating the style of the dome painting of the Sistine Chapel.
In 2005, Yugoslav director Emile Kusturica completed a documentary two years after filming Maradona. Kusturica begins by quoting Baudelaire's verse "God is the only Ruler of the world" in an attempt to understand Maradona's divinity in Argentina. British director Cappadia's documentary Maradona was selected for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and Cappadia said: "Maradona has actually died a few times, but he's back. This is a story about death and resurrection. ”
On 10 August 1981, Maradona, a member of boca's youth team, lifted the trophy of the Argentine Football Championship
In the name of God
If you want to find a land outside of Argentina that believes in Maradona, it must be Naples.
Argentina has a long history with Italy, and Borges once jokingly said that Argentines are a bunch of Italians who speak Spanish. Since 1880, Argentina has influxed about 4 million European immigrants in 40 years, more than half of them from Italy, and the proportion of Italian immigrants even exceeds that of the Spaniards who once colonized Argentina, of which the Naples region has exported a lot. Maradona's maternal grandfather was an immigrant from southern Italy who settled in Argentina with daughter Dalma Franco, Maradona's mother.
It is estimated that more than half of Argentina's population, or as many as 25 million people, now have Italian ancestry, which makes the two countries have many similarities in culture, language and religious beliefs.
The Catholic tradition in Naples is deep. Long before Maradona's move to Napoli in 1984, every summer, Napoli would go to Trentino in the north for summer training, and the local archbishop of Naples would also go to hold a Mass for the club team, and after the completion of which the clergy would distribute communion to the fans present. The reason why the Home stadium of the Napoli team is named "São Paulo" is also due to the Catholic story that the Apostle Paul docked his ship at Furigrotta in Naples while traveling to present-day Spain.
In July 1984, the diminutive Maradona, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue trousers, walked through the underground players' tunnels into the crowded St. Paul's Stadium, a sight that has long since become a classic. At that time, the players' tunnels were hung with pictures of the Saints and the Virgin, and later Maradona would stop there to pray every time before entering the stadium.
But God is more of a game with the media for Maradona. Maradona used the phrase "Hand of God" in Naples long before he invented the phrase "Hand of God" at a press conference after the World Cup in 1986. After scoring his first goal for Napoli, he said in an interview: "It wasn't me who scored, it was God who scored because we played badly. ”
After leading Napoli to a historic First Division title in 1987, Maradona also became a religion in the city, with streets and babies named after Maradona, and the whole family came forward to pray and bless Maradona collectively. Once, when he went to a blood test, the nurse placed a sample of Maradona's blood in the church of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples. "You can't say bad things about Maradona, and if you say bad things about Maradona, then you're criticizing God, but you can't criticize God because He's above everything else." People at that time said.
Today, on the streets of Naples, there are still many "Maradona shrines" for worshippers. Many traditional statue workshops that used to produce only Catholic-related products have been making modern products since the 1980s, the Maradona statue. Maradona had always said that he was not opposed to the poor using his portrait rights, but if merchants used him to speculate, they would attract lawsuits, and now even club stores cannot post Maradona's portraits on the windows.
Feud with the Vatican
Maradona was increasingly endowed with a divine personality, and he himself often called himself the "voice of the people", questioning traditional theocracy.
In 2000, he was received by the Pope. Under normal circumstances, it took a year's appointment and waiting for the head of state to see the Pope, and Maradona paid only 72 hours for it.
The first time I saw the Pope, even Maradona was nervous. After the meeting, pope John Paul II at the time gave Maradona's mother a string of rosary beads first, and then to his wife Claudia. When it was Maradona's turn, the Pope said to him in Italian: "This string is specially given to you. Maradona immediately said thank you. As the crowd moved on, Maradona looked again at his mother's rosary and saw that it was exactly the same. He said to his mother: "No, mine is special, and the Pope himself told me that I am different. ”
So he approached the Pope again and asked, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, what is the difference between me and my mother's rosary?" The Pope did not answer him, but just looked at him, patted him on the back with his hand, smiled at him, and went on.
"I didn't have the least respect for me, just patted me with my hand, smiled a little, and that was it. It's like saying, Diego, don't get in trouble, there are still people waiting for me. Maradona later recalled in his autobiography, "Why am I angry? There are many more such things. Because they are hypocritical, they say one thing and do one thing, they lie. ”
His more famous public criticism was a question of the Vatican. He later told the Spanish newspaper El País: "I went there and saw the golden ceiling of the Vatican Church, and I thought to myself: How can he live under the golden ceiling and then go to a poor country with such a big belly and kiss a child?" I don't believe it anymore, I just believe what I saw with my own eyes..."
Maradona proposed to the Pope through the media: "Then you sell the roof, is it not good to do some good deeds?" You have so much wealth but you don't think about the poor, and you were a 'keeper', what did your Ambrosio Bank (Vatican Bank) do? Is it selling drugs and smuggling arms, as written in "The Will of God"? I've read this book, and I'm not an ignorant person. I was with the Pope because I was a celebrity. ”
Since then, Maradona has said he has lost his faith in Catholicism.
But years later, maradona revived his faith as an Argentinian was appointed as a new pope. After Being elected as the first non-European pope in the Vatican's modern history in 2013, Maradona visited him several times.
Francis himself is an Argentine fan and a die-hard A team of San Lorenzo. He once said in his autobiography "Let's Dream Again" that when Maradona led Argentina to defeat Germany in the 1986 World Cup final, he was studying in Germany, and he did not watch the ball on the day of the final, and it was the next day that he read the newspaper to know that Argentina had won. At that time, he was in the German class, and a group of German students did not say a word, and a Japanese girl ran to the blackboard and wrote "Long live Argentina", and the others laughed. Then the teacher walked in, asked for the chalkboard to be wiped clean, and ended the topic. "It's the loneliness of exclusive victory, because no one can share in the joy of victory. It's a loneliness without a sense of belonging that makes you feel like an outsider. Francis recalled.
In 2014, several football champions responded to Francis' call to participate in interfaith friendly matches for peace and to meet the Pope in the Vatican's Hall of Paul VI. During that meeting, Maradona gave Francis the Number 10 shirt for the Argentine national team and joked: "Today two great men met, the Hand of God and the Hand of the Pope. Maradona declared: "The first fan of Francis is me." For a long time thereafter, Maradona and Pope Francis were two of the most influential celebrities in Argentina.
But Francis is also clearly eccentric. After Messi came out, fans kept comparing Messi with Maradona and calling Messi the next "God". Francis responded particularly seriously through the media, but did not talk about Maradona: "Messi We see him playing football is a kind of enjoyment, but we can only say that we admire Messi very much, admire him, or say that he is a god on the football field, as a way to show respect for Messi, can not say that Messi is God, only God can be worshipped, only the real God deserves to be worshipped." ”
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