Gently and as if it were salt, the white-gloved hands slip over a bust, behind a black cloth so that no one sees it, the shirt that Diego Maradona He was sweating 36 years ago at the Azteca stadium, during the first half of the World Cup final in Mexico.
In the dark and hidden, the shirt that Diego exchanged with the German Lothar Matthäus at the interval of the match that would consecrate Argentina for the second time world champion waits to take the stage. He will do it in Madrid, in one of the rooms of the residence of the Argentine ambassador to Spain, Ricardo Alfonsinthat this Thursday hosted a ceremony as symbolic as it is moving.
We are about to witness the “homecoming” of this shirt that the former captain of the German national team gave legendsthe largest collection of international football memorabilia that will become a museum in the Spanish capital.
“Thanks to the generosity of Lothar Matthäus we have the opportunity to have the most important relic in the history of the most beautiful sport of all”, insured Marcelo Ordasthe Argentine who created Legends and who for decades has been collecting jerseys, shoes, balls and anecdotes of the most prestigious players in the world of football.
For all the people in the world who will appreciate him, the relic of Diego Maradona from 1986, the most important who consecrated him as the best player of the 20th century, goes to all Argentines. Go home, ”Ordás added excitedly.
Beside him, Lothar Matthäus smiled. “I played against Maradona and it wasn’t just football matches. A friendship was born, ”recalled the German. “He was unique, there is no doubt. Diego is a legend. Playing against him has always been a great honor. Diego will be present not only in our hearts but also in the new museum”, He added in reference to the venue that Legends will inaugurate in Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
The perforated cotton fabric – called airtex fabric – of the shirt with the 10 imprinted on the back does not hide the scars caused by the tear that Maradona suffered on the pitch that hot June 29th and that he showed off in Madrid this Thursday.
Matthäus kept it framed in his home. “They were not the best conditions – they explained Clarione by the Legends team-. It’s faded and probably sunburned. Now we keep it in its case and with humidity and temperature parameters of 18 degrees “.
The shirt, from the French brand Le Coq Sportifit was made with a reticulated fabric that allowed the players to sweat better, overwhelmed by the heat at the time of the 1986 World Cup.
They were usually played in the midday sun as, due to the time difference, the television rights paid by European countries indicated their prime time. At that moment Maradona faced a protest in front of FIFA, but the request to change the match schedule was unsuccessful.
The invitation to the event at the Argentine embassy in Madrid announced the presence of the president of the AFA, Claudio Chiqui Tapia, but missed the appointment. He sent a video in which he thanked Ordás for obtaining “this armor by Diego Armando Maradona which symbolizes so much Argentine football”.
I underline the generosity of Lothar Matthäus because months ago I was in London trying to recover one of the symbolic ‘armors’, the shirt worn by Diego Maradona in that Mexico ’86 against the English. It can’t be for money reasons. But Mr. Lothar Matthäus shows the world that generosity reigns supreme. He is a man who loves football. And as he told me: ‘I played football to have fun with the people’ ”, added Ordás.
In May he and the AFA had asked the Sothebys auction in London to keep the shirt of La Mano di Dio and the Goal of the Century: the one that Diego wore in the match against England in the quarter-finals of the ’86 World Cup and that former English midfielder Stephen Hodge – with whom Maradona swapped shirts in that match – had decided to monetize. But at the last moment, an offer more 9 million dollars it passed the Argentine proposal, which remained empty-handed.
“The battles for cultural heritage are the epic of a society struggling to preserve its culture, its identity, its values and its history. And that’s what we’re doing here today. We are united by gratitude, solidarity and history, ”Ordás said.
The Legends president confessed what his first contact with Matthäus was like: “In principle, frustrating. ‘Thank you. I’m not interested. We’ll talk another day, “he replied. But then he saw what was happening in London and sent me a message. He highlighted the courage of being the Argentine who went to England to seek that national heritage.” said.
That of the final in Mexico is not the only jersey exchanged by Lothar Matthäus and Diego Maradona. Just as Argentina won in 1986, Germany won in Italy ’90.
“The jersey we exchanged at the World Cup in Italy is at the German Football Museum. If Marcelo keeps insisting, maybe one day they’ll get that too”, Ironically the German who remembered when he played with Diego in Seville in the farewell match of the Frenchman Michel Platini.
“I scored a goal thanks to Diego’s pass. It was an unforgettable night. There were unforgettable evenings with some beers, ”Matthäus said and tempted those present by saying that he still has a video of that Andalusian night in 1988 on his cell phone.
“The main objective of this collection is to preserve the testimony worn by these short heroes of the greatest passion that human beings have created, which is football,” Ordás told the Argentine embassy accompanied by Oscar Mayo, CEO of LaLiga, organizer of professional championships in Spain.
Invited to lead the event, Víctor Hugo Morales defined the Ordás project “the reinvention of emotion through everything that has dressed the bodies, the feet of the most illustrious athletes in the history of football”.
“Diego comes home,” said Victor Hugo. He decided that maybe he wouldn’t be happy but that he would give us a lot of happiness. And this is Diego: to give happiness ”.
“My next dream is Lothar Matthäus’ world champion jersey in Italy ’90,” Ordás confessed aloud.
Matthäus said he was honored. He received a plaque from Ambassador Alfonsín “in recognition of his football career and his contribution to the transmission of values through sport”.
And he anticipated the prediction for the next World Cup in Qatar: “We hope that Argentina and Germany will meet in the final”.
Madrid. Corresponding
Marina Artusa
Source: Clarin
