HERZOGENAURACH, Germany _ Argentinian soccer remains the Diego Maradona
show.
Regarded by some as the game's greatest player, Argentina's legendary No. 10
pops up unannounced at the country's World Cup practices in northern Bavaria,
often puffing on an oversized Cuban cigar as he struts in and out of the team
hotel with his estranged wife and their daughter.
At Argentina's first-round matches, he upstaged coach Jose Pekerman
with pregame pep talks for players young enough to be his sons.
One of them, 18-year-old striker Lionel Messi, has been dubbed the "next
Maradona." He had yet to be born when Maradona led Argentina to its second World
Cup title in 1986.
"Maradona inspires us and he gets our greatest respect," said Carlos Tevez, a
22-year-old striker who, like Maradona, grew up in a Buenos Aries shantytown.
Stocky, with black curly hair, Tevez looks like Maradona and shares some of his
playing style: swaying hips, low center of gravity, a bull-like ferocity.
"He's our idol, and an idol for the people," added Tevez, who also was billed
as the "next Maradona" until Messi came along. "Every time he shows up he makes
us laugh a lot, and when he leaves we feel we are stronger than we really are."
A beat-up white Volkswagen often parks at Argentina's practice field, a
worship-like message scribbled on its side:
"The Pope is German. God is Argentine _ Diego X."
A few steps from where the car parks, near a closed gate blocking the
training ground entrance, 22-year-old Ignacio Anselmo pulls up his blue
Argentina shirt to show off three tattoos _ all Maradona-inspired.
His Buenos Aires friend, Federico D'Andrea, rolls up his right sleeve to
display another Maradona image on his shoulder.
"Are you going to write something good or bad about him?" Anselmo asked.
"In Argentina, football is everything, and he is everything," Anselmo
explained. "It's everything he has done in 30 years, not just the '86 World Cup.
The negative things about him aren't important; those are his personal things."
