>> I ought to thank
the guy upstairs. The beard, as I call him. >> One of the world's greatest soccer players,
Diego Maradona died today. >> He gives me opportunities
and I make the most of it. >> Diego Maradona,
arguably the greatest footballer of all time. >> Off the field, he was vulnerable, troubled,
conflicted, but on the pitch he was untouchable, revered, and invincible.
>> Maradona was the captain of the Argentina National Team that defeated Germany in the
World Cup Final in 1986. >> Diego Maradona's legacy
on the pitch will span generations. >> His tenaciousness will be studied,
his bulldog style approach made him a mountain of a man in the sport even if he were only 5 ft 5.
From a kid who grew up with lack of electricity and running water,
Maradona's story is inspiring and ended with him ingrained in the royal family of footballers. When
he died of heart failure in Buenos Aires last week at just 60, tributes poured in. Argentina
great Lionel Messi scored the fourth goal in the Barcelona's rout against Osasuna and paid homage
to Maradona with Newell's Old Boys Kit, Maradona's former club with his signature number ten.
As fearless as he was on the pitch, Maradona's relentlessness
off it for the people, the disenfranchised,
willing to stick his neck out and the name and drive for equality should be discussed more. Last
week, we saw players from the National Basketball Association visit the Pope at the Vatican
to discuss their efforts toward addressing social justice and economic inequality per the times.
Maradona visited the Vatican as well. After his meeting with Pope John Paul II,
Maradona told reporters, I was in the Vatican and I saw all these golden ceilings. And
afterwards I heard the Pope say the church was worried about the welfare of poor kids.
Sell your ceiling then, amigo do something!
After another visit Maradona was quoted as saying, I went into the Vatican and saw that golden roof
and I said to myself how could somebody be such a son of a expletive as to live with a golden roof
and then go to poor countries and kiss children with a full belly?
I stopped believing. Years later though he said his faith was restored via Pope Francis, still
who says that of the Vatican? To call it out as he sees it. The answer is Maradona.
When the 43rd President of the United States George Bush visited Mar del Plata,
Argentina at the fourth Summit of the Americas, there was Maradona rocking a Stop Bush T-shirt.
I'm proud as an Argentine to repudiate the presence of this human trash,
George Bush, he said. The masses were ticked at the Iraq War and the US president's push
for a region wide free trade deal. Hospital and subway workers went on strike in Buenos Aires.
Argentina has its dignity, let's throw Bush out of here, Maradona yelled into the microphone
in front of a crowd of thousands upon thousands of protesters.
He also attacked the 45th president. When you see such cartoon characters like Trump, you begin
thinking that if such a man takes it into his head, we may all become enemies, he said. Also
recall the pieces that we have done previously on this channel, with Vince McMahon and the WWE.
How he despises unionization and the fight the wrestlers have, even currently to this day.
The idea of the association came to me as a way of showing my solidarity with the many
players who need the help of those are famous, Maradona said when he pushed for unionization.
And the saddening tale of the Israeli Palestine conflict, Maradona used his voice.
At the World Cup final in Moscow, Maradona warmly greeted Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and told him, in my heart I'm Palestinian. I respect them and sympathize with
them, he said. I support Palestine without any fear. In 2014 during the Gaza Israel war known
as Operation Protective Edge, Maradona said what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is shameful.
The only certainty about Maradona, wrote Jimmy Burns, is that when he dies,
no matter how he dies his funeral in Bueno Aires will be as big as Evita's,
and even then people won't believe that he is dead.