sussexpob wrote:I have never experienced anything like that to that extent, where a person has almost god like status and evokes such fondness and reverence.
Arthur Crabtree wrote:SRT surely. There's even an actual religion.
Arthur Crabtree wrote:Cricket in India must outrank football in Argentina, even if just in terms of size of the following. No comparison in terms of global following, but the cult is in the home country.
Alviro Patterson wrote:Watched the Diego Maradona documentary on Channel 4.
Often getting kicked on the shins whilst he had the ball, but still kept charging forward and not feigned injury or looked for a penalty.
Pure respect on that alone, Maradona would boss it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke.
sussexpob wrote:Arthur Crabtree wrote:Cricket in India must outrank football in Argentina, even if just in terms of size of the following. No comparison in terms of global following, but the cult is in the home country.
Maradona's cult wasnt merely limited to Argentina though. You have to think that his life spans the period where every country in South America at some stage (or multiple times) falls to a dictatorship, where European and American imperialism and political interference had a lot to do with that, and as a result a huge rise in pan-Americanism comes into existence. That rise in pan-Americanism mostly manifested itself in the social or ethnic underclasses, and as a mestizo with European immigrant heritage born into a house with no electricity, he was instantly relatable to pretty much every single person in Latin America.
Think of that match vs England in 1986. A Brazilian watching would have seen it as a victory against the English domination of FIFA and its total disregard for South American football at this time (which still stings there) along with British support of military regimes that haunted Brazil. An Argentinian would have seen it as revenge for the Falklands War. A Chilean would have seen it as revenge against a Thatcher government who had helped Pinochet. In Paraguay revenge against Britain propping up Stroessner for decades. Repeated in Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador and Honduras where Thatcher and Reagan spent years backing human rights abusing dictators. When he sunk England, he may as well have been representing South America as much as Argentina.
Worth noting Maradona was a fierce outspoken critic of these dictators. He was a fierce critic of the Catholic church and told the Pope to sort his act out to help child poverty. He was a huge supporter of ethnic minorities in Latin America. He was personal friends of many of those politicians who supported dramatic changes in social programs on the continent. He was a fierce critic of American interference into Latin America, once legendarily being responsible for Bush cancelleing a visit for a Latin American conference in Argentina after appearing at a rally in La Plata with Hugo Chavez.
You see that imprint left in the culture on the continent. The failure of right wing liberalizations of the economies that devastated countries in the late 80s and early 90s gave way in the 2000s to changes; Chavez, Moralez, et al... all friends of Maradona. I am not saying he is responsible, but his personal choices of who he supported seem to co-incide with the endemic culture of those in South America, showing how in tune he was to the continent as a whole.
He was basically an advocate for the whole continents historically represent and under classes..... Tendulkar was a rich kid who could hit a ball well.
Its not comparable.
Arthur Crabtree wrote:Can still see Gary Lineker missing a sitter from a John Barnes cross in the last minute that would have taken England into extra time; and after being outclassed for 80m at last on top with Barnes tearing them up on the left as a late sub.
Arthur Crabtree wrote:Not these arguments, but a similar abstract analysis of Maradona I've heard before used to justify the hand of god goal, but I'm not sure it works for me. Mainly because it excuses the kind of intolerance that sometimes seems evident in why England fans get so angry about it and are so unwilling to forget, despite the whole forest of gamesmanship that has grown up around this incident over the past 34 years
The arguments I've read often appear ingenious but seem overstated and tenuous to me, but I'm happy to concede I don't know enough about it. I have more personal experience of the deification of Sachin. If part of Maradona's appeal is that he struck a blow against a hated adversary, it can't be difficult to assemble a similar narrative around the British in India.
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