BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Inside the auditorium of one of Latin America’s most prestigious universities, the academic solemn atmosphere was punctuated by chants of “Ole, Ole, Diego, Diego” from fans wearing Argentina, Boca Juniors and Napoli jerseys.
Thirty years after Diego Maradona dazzled Oxford University by juggling a golf ball with his left foot after a lecture, nostalgia for ‘El Diez’, who died in 2020, has caused a similar impact at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires.
The scene took place within the framework of the first international conference on Diego Maradona, where from Thursday to Saturday scholars began discussing the influence of the soccer superstar on popular culture and off the pitch.
“There is no athlete in the world, let alone a soccer player, who can be seen as comprehensively and approached from different angles as Diego Maradona,” journalist Daniel Arcucci said at Thursday’s opening ceremony. He is the official biographer of Argentina’s captain of the 1986 World Cup winning team.
This is the first time that the country’s most important public university has taken the time to analyze the Maradona phenomenon. Organizers say it’s not to explain it, but to “continue to build bridges between his life and ours, between his image and recent history.”
Topics covered include “Devotion and Religiosity in the World of Maradona”; “Maradona and Hegemonic Masculinity: A Feminist Approach”; “An Approach to Maradona’s Philosophy”; and “Fashion, Tattoos, and Maradona Murals”.
Maradona died of cardiac arrest on November 25, 2020 at the age of 60, ending a life of excess. He had been under house arrest after undergoing surgery for a subdural hematoma.
The trial of seven medical workers accused of negligence will begin on March 17th.
“Just like we talk about Jesus in church, Diego lives on through what we continue to talk about,” said renowned producer and screenwriter Pedro Saborido. “As we say to ourselves, let’s keep telling Diego’s story.”
For fans, it’s another opportunity to remember their greatest idol.
“This is a way to feel his presence,” Jose Luis Carizo, 52, told The Associated Press at the university. He has a tattoo of images of Maradona on his right shoulder, including the Hand of God goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. “We can’t put flowers (at his grave), but we haven’t forgotten about him.”
Maradona’s remains are resting in a private cemetery, awaiting transfer to a mausoleum in downtown Buenos Aires, scheduled to open in 2026.
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