Diego Armando Maradona, the mop-haired boy from a Buenos Aires slum who dribbled and dazzled his way to world fame, becoming one of the greatest soccer players of all time but also one of the most self-destructive, has died.
Maradona died on Wednesday from a heart attack, the Associated Press has
confirmed. Maradona had been plagued by health issues in recent years . He was 60 years of age .
As the news of Maradona’s death circulated around the world Wednesday, Argentine President Fernandez called for three days of national mourning while UEFA, soccer’s governing body in Europe, announced there would be a minute of silence before its Champions League and Europa League games this week.
Pele, the Brazilian legend and perhaps the greatest player of all time, wrote on Twitter that he “lost a great friend and the world lost a legend. … One day, I hope we can play ball together in the sky.”
Such was the complexity of Maradona’s personal life, according to news accounts, that he was the father of eight children, including two daughters with his wife at the time, Claudia Villafañe — they later divorced — and three children fathered while he was in Cuba undergoing treatment for his cocaine addiction. His survivors include those daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, as well as three children from other relationships: Diego Armando Maradona Sinagra, an Italian soccer player; Jana Maradona; and Dieguito Fernando Maradona.
Diego Armando Maradona was born Oct. 30, 1960, in Lanus, Argentina, and
raised in the Buenos Aires shantytown Villa Fiorito, where he took up
soccer on dusty streets with an urchin’s resourcefulness. By age 15, he
had turned professional. He later starred with the European club powers
Napoli and Barcelona. In 1986 he won the Fifa World Cup held in Mexico . And, in 2010, coached Argentina in the 2010 World
Cup, held in South Africa.
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