The list includes three Santas, two soccer players, one cartoon character, and one equivalent of Paris Hilton; it got a bit long so I'll start with one saint and two soccer players.
Diego Maradona
Here’s a general video of his futbol feats, with song by the marvelous Mano Negra (to whom you should listen even if sports bore you).
His biggest accomplishments: this spectacular goal against England in 1986 (Mundial, quarterfinal match). Side note: Malvinas war? 1983. (Also re-start of democracy). Of course Argentina would make a national hero of anyone who’d put the English down a little.
And then, what he later called the ‘Hand of God’ goal – made in the same game, the referee never caught it.
Named one of two ‘futbolistas del siglo,’ there seems to be nothing this man can do to bungle his own popularity. And oh boy has he tried – cocaine, alcohol, illegitimate children he refuses to acknowledge, relations with the mafia in Naples, relations with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and the military dictatorships here in the 70s. Swearing at journalists or running over their feet with his car (no, really), and now a relationship with a much younger woman who ‘spontaneously aborted’ when it was discovered she was pregnant…
Well, this year he’s coaching the Argentine team, and the cameras make sure to cut to him any time anything interesting happens on the field, because he’ll be glowering or waving his arms around or tackle-hugging people (in a manly way, of course). He’s promised (threatened?) to go run naked in the streets of Buenos Aires if Argentina wins. I guess it’s rebellion against that suit his daughters convinced him to wear.
Lionel Messi
Currently suffering under the title of the ‘New Maradona,’ he's the star of the Argentine Mundial selection this year (though Higuain and Tevez are doing pretty well for themselves, too). There are rumors flying right now that he has a cold – and if I, in my eh-sports and language bubble, have heard of this, you can imagine what a big deal futbol is here. The country literally stops for the games – there’s a law that federal employees must be allowed to watch Argentina games. I don’t even need to watch to know the score, just count how many times the city has erupted with horns and yells. There was a man singing and throwing confetti off his balcony after Argentina won against Greece, and after Portugal lost to Spain I heard two separate people enquiring the results of strangers on the street. Versus Germany tomorrow should be an exciting game.
Back to Messi – he plays for Barcelona, and they call him ‘Pulga’ – flea – because he’s just little (and seems to get knocked down a lot by the bigger players), but oh man can he handle the ball. Maradona seems to alternately treat him like the favorite and a scapegoat – probably jealous of the attention.
That is quite enough of futbol. The excitement is infectious, though - chau chau, y VAMOS ARGENTINA!!
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