Every year thousands of travellers to Buenos Aires pay homage to Maradona. They admire the murals celebrating his beautiful youth, his cheeky smile and the Hand of God goal against “los ingleses”. They take selfies at the corner of Maradona and Diego streets in the Devoto district, the signage changed by a neighbour following the football star’s death, aged 60, in November 2020 (he would have been 61 today). They go to walk on the hallowed pitches of Boca Juniors and Argentino Juniors; Maradona’s senior career began in 1976 at the latter, now renamed Estadio Diego Armando Maradona.
But when they ask tour guides or local friends to take them to the legend’s birthplace, the stock response is a hollow guffaw and a cry of “Imposible!” On Wednesday, the Argentinian government declared that the humble abode where little Dieguito was born on October 30 1960, at 523 Azamor Street in Villa Fiorito, 10 miles from the centre of Buenos Aires, was a “national historical site”. The equivalent of listing a building in the UK, it means the humble house and dirt patio are now protected by state decree against demolition or significant alteration.
It also ostensibly throws the property into the tourist spotlight. The only problem is, Villa Fiorito was, and remains, a poor, run-down, crime-ridden area, considered off-limits even for locals who might want to make a pilgrimage.
“It’s not safe at all for anyone from outside to go into Villa Fiorito,” my close friend Mariano Miramontes insists.“Diego’s house is in an area that even I would avoid. It’s a slum. I’d certainly not recommend a tall, fair English tourist going to the house holding a fancy camera. You’re liable to come out naked. Far better to go and see the Pope’s house in Flores and San Lorenzo’s stadium.”
As you’ll have guessed, Mariano and Pope Francisco hail from the same neighbourhood and support the same team.
On my own trips through Villa Fiorito, I’ve only been able to see the house from a speeding car. Azamor Street is asphalted these days, unlike most of the roads in nearby shanty towns, and neighbouring properties, while plain, are standard issue working-class homes. But when Argentinian journalists arrive to take pictures and interview local people, they typically encounter hostility and threats of violence.
The conservation order for the house notes that “round the corner… were seven football pitches (paddocks)… where Diego Armando Maradona began to develop as a footballer during his infancy.” Grainy footage of the young player, aged 10, shows him playing keepy-uppy on waste round, using his head and both feet, hands folded behind his back. It’s my dream to go there one day, kick a ball around with the local kids, and score a goal – perhaps with my hand
“You’re insane!” says Mariano. “The kids will skin you alive.”
The Argentinian government says its decision illustrates that Maradona “transcends his sporting achievements and confirms him, in light of his recent death, as one of the most recognisable symbols of our identity”.
Not every Argentinian is football-mad, nor did all approve of Maradona’s excesses or many flaws as a manager and as a man (though most do forgive him the Hand of God). But, in a country that one author dubbed “the land that lost its heroes”, it’s true to say Maradona has unusually widespread appeal.
For those unable, or unwilling, to make it out to the Villo Fiorito house, another Buenos Aires family home in the more central district of La Paternal is now a museum called Casa de D10S – the name a pun on the Spanish word for god.
There are also Maradona museums and shrines in Naples and Kerala. The city of Rosario, 185 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, is home to the Iglesia Maradoniana or Church of Maradona, founded in 1998 by three fans. Congregants have their own 10 commandments, including laws such as “The ball is never soiled” and “Make Diego your middle name”.
Yesterday, a new 10-part drama based on his life, Maradona Blessed Dream, premiers on Amazon Prime in Argentina. Spanish-speaking channel Pluto TV recently released Maradona Without Cuts, featuring 24 hours of dedicated coverage. A Maradona Cup match, to take place in Barcelona this December, has also just been announced.
Maradona is buried beside his parents’ graves in the private Jardín Bella Vista cemetery, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. With the events surrounding his death the subject of a legal investigation, it seems that, like Evita before him, Argentina’s most famous footballer is destined both for legendary status and posthumous controversies.
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