"For those of us who knew him, Maradona was like a god."

BarcelonaFive years have passed since the death of Diego Armando Maradona. Like other geniuses, the Argentinian does not rest in peace, with a A legal case has been opened to decide whether those who were supposed to care for him let him die.Maradona, considered by many to be the best player of all time, left an unforgettable memory on those who knew him, also in Barcelona, ​​where he played for two seasons, from 1982 to 1984, which did not go entirely well.

In Barcelona, he suffered injuries and illnesses, clashed with Athletic Bilbao players, was injured himself, and repeatedly confronted President Núñez, with whom he was subjected to loud booing, including one incident where the Argentine and Schuster threatened to smash trophies in the museum if he didn't comply. Maradona won three titles (a Copa del Rey, a Copa de la Liga, and a Supercopa) and scored incredible goals, such as the one at the Santiago Bernabéu where Juan José's shot hit the post. But he didn't achieve the same level of success as in Naples. Nevertheless, many Barça members who would watch the warm-ups to witness every detail still consider him one of the best players ever to wear the Blaugrana colors, even though the luck that had smiled on him at other times turned its back on Catalonia.

This Monday, in fact, the Mataró FC Barcelona Supporters Club will bring together two of Maradona's teammates, Paco Clos and Luis Fernández, at their headquarters on Argentona Street to remember him. "I made my debut in La Liga precisely because of an injury to Maradona, who couldn't play at Atlético's stadium. I was coming up from the reserve team and I was terrified. But he had the gift of making sure everyone was okay, he defended the players and looked after the youngsters. Well, he was younger than me, but since I came from the reserve team, it didn't seem like it." He was a truly remarkable person. Closed off. Goalkeeper Luis Fernández, who didn't make his official debut but did play two friendlies before leaving for Sabadell, can't forget him: "For me, he was a god. An exceptional person with his teammates. He had something special, an aura I've never seen in anyone."

Maradona arrived from Boca Juniors after the World Cup in Spain. The negotiations to bring the player out of that military-controlled Argentina were straight out of a detective novel, with guns on the table to intimidate Josep Maria Minguella, who accompanied Joan Gaspart and Josep Lluís Núñez on those trips. Núñez even met with the president of River Plate to make it seem like they actually wanted to sign him. Maradona was arriving at a Barça that wanted to win everything, but coach Uddo Lattek and El Pelusa didn't get along. So, Menotti, the coach who had led Argentina to victory in the 1978 World Cup, was brought in. Maradona had been the best player at the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, won by Argentina in Japan. The runner-up was Juan Carlos Pérez Rojo. "Maradona was key to Menotti's arrival. He remembered the World Cup, so he asked about me when he landed in Barcelona," Rojo recalls. Menotti kept asking about this Rojo guy he remembered from the World Cup, and apparently a Barça executive thought he was asking about Chechu Rojo, a legend of Athletic Club. "'He's retired,' they told me," Rojo smiles. In reality, he was in the reserve team, waiting for the chance to reunite with Maradona.

The first impression

Everyone remembers the first time they spoke to the Argentinian. Julio Alberto was in the locker room where the new signing was introduced. "His locker was next to Marcos Alonso's. And I was next to him, so we chatted a lot. The first day he took his balled-up socks and started juggling them. They wouldn't fall off. Marcos and I looked at each other and understood that we had to look after him, that he was... he recalls, I asked him if he had any problems." Many people saw him juggling objects, like the journalist Eduard Boet, who recounted in The Vanguard He recounted how once the microphone foam fell on him in the tunnel, and Maradona juggled it around "without dropping it." "If that image had been recorded, it would have been worth millions," he explained.

The first conversation with Clos happened during training. "It was during a training session, during a play where we played a one-two, and he said to me, 'Very good, kid.'" "He was a very generous man. They say he left partly for money, and it could be, because he was always spending, giving gifts. He gave us young players everything," says Rojo, who remembers that "he was always the first to go and negotiate bonuses and contracts, to defend us." Núñez knew that Maradona was special and wanted to get a financial return, so he organized friendly matches where it was stipulated in the contract that the Argentine had to be present. "Once we argued that Maradona couldn't play because he'd been injured and had stitches. But without him, we wouldn't get paid, so he sacrificed himself and played. And afterward, he started giving us things because he was so touched, since we had stood up for him," he explains. "And he defended others. He was capable of stopping his car if he saw a kid in the street to give him food. There were always lots of people at the house where he lived, since he offered it to friends and acquaintances. He wasn't perfect and had flaws, like everyone, but he loved to help. In Naples, he continued doing bad things, going to the neighborhoods to play matches to help children. The press would report it," says Julio Alberto, who remembers that with Menotti's arrival, he started training in the afternoon, since "he believed that training should be at the same time as the matches; it made sense."

This routine left the mornings free and opened the possibility of extending the nights. "Of course we went out, to clubs like Up & Down, but just for drinks. If he did things at home afterwards, I don't know," says Clos. Journalist Josep Maria Casanovas recalled that when Maradona was injured, he would rest on the terrace of his mansion while friends snorted cocaine on a ping-pong table. Julio Alberto, who would suffer greatly from drugs after his retirement, admitted to trying the drug for the first time at Maradona's house during those years. His time in Barcelona was complicated, with moments of glory, but also much darkness. But those who knew him will never forget him.