Diego Maradona plunged the entire football world into sadness with his death at the age of 60 due to a cardiac arrest on Wednesday. Diego Maradona is considered as one of the greatest footballers ever and his death is a massive loss to the world of football. Many legends led their tributes in their admiration of Diego Maradona, starting with Brazil football great Pele. However, not many are aware of his great relationship with former Cuba president Fidel Castro, whom he considered a close friend and his ‘second father’.
The bond between Diego Maradona and Fidel Castro was so deep that the Argentina legend had a tattoo of Fidel Castro on his left leg. When Fidel Castro died in 2016, Diego Maradona is said to have wept uncontrollably and in that, his love for Fidel Castro was so deep that he named him his ‘second father’. However, Diego Maradona also shares a tragedy with Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016. Four years later, on the same day, Diego Maradona died of a cardiac arrest.
The beginning of the friendship
Diego Maradona met Fidel Castro for the first time in 1987, following Argentina’s 1986 FIFA World Cup triumph. However, it was not until the start of the 21st century that both Diego Maradona and Fidel Castro established a solid bond.
It all began when Diego Maradona went to Cuba for his drug rehabilitation after he nearly died of a heart problem induced by his addiction to cocaine. In his near four-year stay in Cuba, Diego Maradona revealed in several interviews that Fidel Castro opened the doors for him when clinics in Argentina were slamming the doors on him as they did not his death on their hands. Fidel Castro would invite him for morning walks and discuss politics and sports with him.
There was another factor which both Fidel Castro and Diego Maradona shared and that was their hatred for the US. Diego Maradona’s international career came to an end in the 1994 World Cup in the USA after he was found guilty of doping. In 2005, Diego Maradona interviewed Fidel Castro and both individuals echoed their thoughts on their anti-US feeling.
In his international career with Argentina, Maradona earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. On the other hand, Fidel Castro was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. Fidel Castro became the longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries
