”Diego had his usual amused voice. He asked how I was, if I needed anything. He kept me awake for almost half an hour telling him about the football games he hadn’t been able to see. 'I miss football,' he said.
In a few days, I'll get back in shape and get back to my life. I asked him when he'd be returning to Italy, and he said, 'Let's see, maybe for Christmas.'" Hugo Maradona, Diego's brother, recounts his last phone call with the Pibe on November 22nd, at night, three days before his passing. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he says he didn't detect sadness or suffering in his voice. "He was calm. If Diego had been suffering that night, he would have done everything not to let me know. That's how he was; he didn't want to bother me. There are seven of us, brothers and sisters, he called us all but he didn't talk about his problems. He never did. That's why I say, with great sorrow, that only he knows the truth about the last weeks of his life."
On the investigation and the hypotheses of guilt in Maradona's death, "I have no idea - says his brother -, perhaps unconsciously I tend not to. But if it hadn't been a natural death it would be an even greater pain. I have faith in justice, if there is a guilty party he will have to pay. My brother didn't deserve it. He helped everyone, he never asked for anything in return and many took advantage. He certainly made mistakes, but without ever hiding. He paid a very high price for this, putting his face on the line every time. Alone".
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Hugo Maradona talks about his family: "We are very close, in the name of the values that our parents passed on to us. Diego was like that: he decided when and how to be with his loved ones. He always called us though, and if he was sick he pretended to be well. I don't express any judgments about friends, doctors, and various lawyers. Diego took many secrets with him to the other world. The last time we were together was two years ago at Christmas in Argentina. With Dalma, Giannina, Diego Jr. It was wonderful to find ourselves all together again. We wanted to go back this year, but the pandemic didn't even allow me to go and say goodbye to my brother for the last time."
As for Maradona's legacy, "Diego's children must be calm," he added. "He loved them very much, he earned money for them too, and it's right that his legacy goes only to them. This treasure hunt of the last few days is very sad. As far as I'm concerned, Diego brought me to Naples, I will always thank him. I live here and right now the fans' love for Diego eases my pain. Then, there's also an alarm clock, in the shape of Mickey Mouse, the Disney character. He used to scold me for sleeping too much, I told him I didn't have an alarm clock and he sent it to me. Big and with a loud ring. Now I've passed it on to my son Tiago who is 23 years old. Diego was his godfather."
“Diego – he concludes – was generous, good. Brother, precisely. In the deepest sense. This was his private life, I will always love him. He was the greatest footballer of all time. An extraterrestrial. Everyone must remember him on the pitch: his world, his life. For the rest, let’s leave him alone at least for now. He has already been judged enough, I think. For many he was a living business, but with us he was a normal person. We are children of the same parents, at a certain point he went full blast. But when we met again we were the same, the boys from Lanus. Could I have done more for him? Easy to say yes now, but he had his own life. And it was difficult to get into it”.
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