”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 go back to my life. I asked him when he would be returning to Italy, and he said: let's see, maybe for Christmas”. Hugo Maradona, brother of Diego, recounts his last phone call with Pibe on November 22, at night, three days before his disappearance. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, he states that he did not perceive sadness or suffering in his voice. "He was serene. If Diego had been suffering that night, he would have done everything to not let me notice. He was like that, he did not want to bother me. There are seven of us, brothers and sisters, he called us all but did not talk about his problems. He never did. That is why I say, with great pain, 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."
Quanto all’eredità di Maradona, ”i figli di Diego devono stare sereni – aggiunge -. Li ha amati molto, ha guadagnato anche per loro, ed è giusto che soltanto a loro vada la sua eredità . Questa caccia al tesoro degli ultimi giorni è molto triste. Per quanto mi riguarda, Diego mi ha portato a Napoli, lo ringrazierò sempre. Vivo qui e in questo momento l’amore dei tifosi per Diego attenua il mio dolore. Poi, c’è anche una sveglia, a forma di Topolino, il personaggio Disney. Mi rimproverava che dormivo troppo, gli dissi che non avevo una sveglia e lui me la fece avere. Grande e con un trillo forte. Ora l’ho passata a mio figlio Tiago che ha 23 anni. Diego è stato il suo padrino”.
“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”.
Article published on 9 December 2020 - 08:41
