The memoirs of Maradona and Di Stéfano 

Dribbles wich light up pupils

Jesús Castañón Rodríguez

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS FOOTBALLER

The central part of the two memoirs is in the analysis based on the sporting life with a tango-sensitivity. Between affection and irony, they also bring to mind with nostalgia their response to the survival, their promotion based on other people’s consideration, the achievement of fame and fortune. Their development as footballers is carried out in a chronological arrangement: the beginnings in the neighborhood, the professional life, the obstacles which they have had and an explanation based on their strategies.

The beginnings of the football

The Diego’s story as a footballer starts in Cebollitas. He plays as a zone defence and he contents a lot of matches with a broken ball. The Alfredo’s story comes from Unidos y Venceremos. They are emotive and nostalgic the memories from the first event in another club with other boys from the neighborhood, the transformation of the lane into pitch, of the trees and walls into goals, the boys bright looks when they watched the first division matches, the interest based on the deports from the radio which carried out Lalo Pelliciari, the apprenticeship od the football in Siete Canchitas or in the familiar factory thanks to the training of the bellboy who is a fan of Boca Juniors.

The Snows of the Time in the Clubs and the Nationals Teams

This bell of emotions goes off with the memory of the first match in the first division and in the National Team, with its passionate story based on running in order to tell it the parents as if it the lyrics of the tango El sueño del pibe… becomes a reality.

Diego Armando Maradona remembers again the jump towards the professional in hardly two years and a half. A meteoric step which stars in Argentinos Juniors to continue in Boca Juniors after a sentimental decision in which it had a great influence the father’s dream about seeing Diego playing in such entity and the memory of the stand which cried "que se quede" when in his childhood contended matches to make pleasant the half-times.

He carried out his narrative about a European journey in Spain and Italy. From F.C.Barcelona he remembered his conflicts with the president and managers, the frustration based on the maladjustment of the evolution from the technique to fury and the constant career , the hardness of the scores and a period where there were problems based on health with the hepatitis, because he had problems with drugs, also he had economic debts and a period affected by a forced living from the blue-dark red. A second stop was at Naples where he felt comfortable because the crowd applauded due to his technical details and he felt himself as an idol for the poor children, as a symbol of the fight North against South of Italy, as soon as a feeling of pride by means of which the person who fights more and the less fearful always wins. The lack of recognition for that success supplied to the trainers an not to the footballer, it leads the footballer to go on a large holidays without consent and this will have a consequence: accusations based on having to do with drugs and rows, they are also based on suffering certain risky situations which have never been cleared up and finishing with a false leaving from the entity from Naples.

The final stage or his career was the passing through Seville and Newell’s Old Boys till the entity which he admired from his childhood finished with the Boca Juniors’ shirt, the club where enthusiasts shuddered and cried with great emotion because they recognized the idol who makes them happier and easier life, the plays which allowed to get popularity in a great hurry and way of life, the unforgettable memory of the first stand which chorused his name: "Maradó…"

But it is the football life in the white-blue National Team of one of which constitutes a real compilation of biographical sketches based on the soul, which is fulled with descriptions and precise impressions: the sorrow due to the absence in the summoned list for the Cup of the World in 1978, the physical weakening and the frustration in 1994. A great journey feeling pain and euphoria, which finished with the accusation based on doping in the United States, the inconsolable weeping hugging to his wife and a explosion of fury.

The national team appears as a feeling which is about everything and which needs an unbreakable solidarity, as a source of vivid feelings. Glory would arrive at Mexico and it evokes the whole process when Bilardo goes in search of him and it comes true his dream based on being captain of the national team till Maradona feels as a president in the balcony of the Casa Rosada offering the Argentinian people the triumph from the World championship. And he extends his story in order to dissection the feelings based on the return match in the game against England to recover something from the Malvinas War and to the defend the memory of the dead people as soon as to narrate the dreamt goal explaining its antecedent in a goal which was miscarried the 13 of May in 1981 from a match in Wembley. The sorrow would arrive with the pass of the goal to Caniggia which meant in 1990, which frustrated opportunities in several business and fortunes which found their revenge in his problems based on the consumption of drugs.

Alfredo Di Stéfano made his debut as right outside against Huracán. And in his way it evokes a large list of memories in Argentine: The first matches with River Plate; he signing up by Huracán which gets his president, with the pistol in hand, the salvation of the military service or colimba (run, clean, sweep) thanks to a sergeant from Santiago del Estero´s football team; the first performance with the white-blue national team against Paraguay; the six minutes in which he replaces in the goal-keeper Amadeo Carrizo in the classic Boca-River in 1949; the constant European and American tours.

Later, it appears the poverty transferred, together with Pipo Rossi, to Millonarios from Bogotá in an atmosphere marked by hard attacks, injuries and threats from his old teams and from the Argentinian press. It tells the difficult situation experienced with the interest of the F.C.Barcelona and Real Madrid in order to get its services and a large and complex negotiation for his rights where Millonarios and River Plate took part.

In this Spanish lap it alludes to his passage with Real Madrid, Español and the Spanish National Team. From the first one it throws into relief how they forced him to throw the penalty kick against his will, the most important moments from the decade of the 50, the Santiago Bernabéu’s strong personality, the happy and bitter memoirs from certain matches of the European Cup, the awful consequences from the final of the European Cup from Viena against the Inter de Milano and his leaving in false due to having a coach argument with the trainer Miguel Muñoz, after winning 8 leagues, 5 European Cups, 1 Spanish Cup and 1 Intercontinental Cup. From Español, he tells the strange sensation facing the old white partners and how he played his last match with them against the al Saint Étienne in 1966. And from the Spanish National side he remembers his first performance in January 30, 1957 against Holland together with several moments of championships.

In both cases it is thrown into relief in the Spanish football the great valuation given to the physical effort and the constancy based on the technique, it is made a special point of the fact that the great successes in the European speed and South American technique were mixed, the European dynamics with the Creole buzzes. And in this retrospective panorama it is paid attention to the best goal and injuries. As far as the first aspect is concerned, Maradona has the sequence of the second goal against England in the World Triumph in 1986 on the bed with a poster, but Di Stéfano couldn’t see nor keep any photograph of an acrobatic shot at the goal made of heel against Belgium. As far as injuries is concerned, Diego stands out the fracture in his ankle in Bilbao, the constant infiltrations and the submission to physical and special plans to face to the great events; whereas Alfredo evokes an internal infection in his knee and stomach upsets after an illness based on the skin due to eat tinned goods which their expiry date has passed.

The New Breakings From The Destiny

But in this rediscovery from the past there is the invisible and oppressive force from the destiny with a sporting difficulties and social breakings inclined to check their excesses of talent. The heroes go over transits towards the inevitable, they fight in an epic way with all their forces, but it is in vain and they show their bitter complaint against these people’s indifference who should be interested in the sporting paradoxes and the vital tragedies from a threatening death because of narcotics and violence.

The sporting difficulties are clarified by the team-mates; for example Pasarella in the National Team from Argentine and the Brasilian Didí in the Real Madrid; by the referees who don’t calibrate very well the strong protest from the footballers; by the journalists who use amazing evidences or they do personal interpretations about what hasn’t been said; by representatives who make ruinous and economic inversions… But in both cases they are important the paradoxes based on the upsets from the win and the apparent powerful football star’s weakness. Diego and Alfredo complaint bitterly of the excuses suffered to contend for final phases from the World Cup, the sad win against Italy in 1990 or the thankless leavings of the teams after having devoted themselves and having got the summit with them. Also, they exalt their fight based on the defence, which is organized in trades union, of the footballers’ interests with a total comprehension directed to the miseries experienced by the most natural footballers - delays based on the payment of salaries, corruption… - and with the request for improvements directed high competition footballers . both of then bring to mind the traces of the strikes in 1948in Argentine and the claims planned to the FIFA in 1986 in order to stop the excessive hard play and look for hour hands of the matches which weren’t established according to the interests of the broadcastings.

The social difficulties are related to life, to a whirl of irrational passions. Sometimes they come from amateur teams which assault the Boca Juniors’ concentration in order to threaten the footballers with the gun in hand, if they didn’t strive to win the championship. In other times, these social difficulties are related to the supposed relations with the fenced words based on the rows and fame which led Maradona to know, in the singer Rodrigo´s words " Una blanca mujer de misterioso sabor y de prohibido placer". And also, as it is the case of Di Stéfano, by a group’s desire to use the footballers’ image to advertise their political ideology. It has been a terrifying experience whose information, in addition to which appears in the memoirs produced the poem "Romance del rapto blanco" from José María Pemán (President of the Real Academia Española ) and curiosities as the diligence of the Saeta Rubia to its followers in the Front of National Liberation in Venezuela based on the fact that he wanted they to protect his legs in case of shooting with the police.

Keys to Sport

One of the most important aspects of the memoirs-books are how they examine minutely their own strategies based on sport in a style with brief finishing touches and outbursts of sincerity. We come to the conclusion that football is contagion, taking part without exclusions, the desire for overcoming all the adversities…

The Maradona’s genius lies the mobility of his ankles, because he can turn them more than normal, in the elaboration of physical plans to recover, in the freedom based on movements around the pitch to create, in the pleasure to play on the front of attack organizing the play and passing balls. The Di Stéfano’s secrets are related to having high spirits and fighting without fear, to the people’s cerebral understanding got by means of chats and cohabitations, to the unforeseeable character based on the sport, to accept that simplicity is the most effective and it is imposed, to not having the captaincy of the team’s notability…

TRAJECTORY AS COACH

A third common field is the fact that both have been in the bench as technical directors. Diego develops an experience with lasts months at the head of Mandiyú of Corrientes and Rácing of Avellaneda. Alfredo has a wider career at the head of Elche, Boca Juniors, Valencia, Rayo Vallecano, Castellón, River Plate and Real Madrid.

In any case, they explain that the coach’s mentality forces to think in relation to the others, to know the happiness and successes belong to other people, to try to make happy the people who don’t play and also try to pay attention to the nursery. They suffer, as common problems due to the impossible fight against the managers’ interferences and against the corruption which is in football, as soon as bitterness based on receiving dismissal after getting important titles and triumphs. This trouble is only compensated by the indescribable affection and strong attachment from the supporters, it creates an excessive swaying of instabilities which lead them to leave football in order to not make suffer their families.

TRAJECTORY AS JOURNALIST

Life in their slope of journalists is shorter. Maradona enjoys the notability in Italian television in his golden years from the Naples, but it is Alfredo Di Stéfano the most assiduous. His trajectory starts in the Agencia Efe to cover The World Cup in 1966, with the nickname of "El Topo", and nowadays he contributes for several radios and for technical comments in a soccer program for the International channel of Antena 3 Television.       

Introduction and The peace of the ball

The human side, style and bibliographical references

Traducción: María Elena Martín Pérez

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