President Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning after the Argentine died following a heart attack
\nnews agency
\nBUENOS AIRES:
\nHeartbroken fans of Diego Maradona gathered on the streets of Buenos Aires to mourn the Argentine soccer legend\u2019s death on Wednesday, praying, laying flowers and singing patriotic and sport chants.
\nPresident Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning after Maradona, 60, died at home following a heart attack, after battling a series of health problems.
\nAt Maradona\u2019s childhood home in Villa Fiorito, a largely impoverished city in the suburbs of the capital, people gathered to pray in front of an Argentine flag adorned with a black ribbon.
\nNext to Maradona\u2019s former club, Boca Juniors, in the gritty Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boca, they laid bouquets of flowers.
\n\u201cI came because I felt him. He\u2019s from here, from us,\u201d said Juan Jose Quinteros, 50, a Boca supporter who came to mourn Maradona outside the club.
\n\u201cWith that hand of God he gave the soul back to the people,\u201d Quinteros said, a reference to a goal Maradona scored with his hand against England in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
\nOthers gathered in the San Andres neighborhood where he lived and in the nearby city of La Plata where he had lately been technical director for local team Gimnasia y Esgrima. Crowds of people also sang Argentina\u2019s national anthem outside the hospital where officials are expected to perform Maradona\u2019s autopsy.
\nDigital signs used for public transportation updates were illuminated around the city with the message \u201cThank you, Diego.\u201d
\nAs Wednesday evening came, some fans stood outside the Casa Rosada presidential palace, ahead of Maradona\u2019s wake due to begin on Thursday. Near the Obelisco downtown, a traditional focus of sporting celebrations, fans gathered in Argentina soccer jerseys to sing songs in his honor.
\n\u201cDiego is the greatest there is, the best. I met my wife in 1986 when Diego scored the goal with his hand,\u201d said 53-year-old Buenos Aires resident Jose Luis Shokiva.
\n\u201cThe truth for me is that Diego is everything. As a Boca fan, as an Argentine, he is the greatest. What has happened is an immense sadness,\u201d said Shokiva, wearing a t-shirt with Maradona\u2019s image.
\nMaradona was globally famed as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, but at home was idolized as a god. Fans have long referred to him as \u2018El Dios\u2019 – which means \u2018The God\u2019, but is also a play on words on his number 10 shirt, \u2018El Diez.\u2019
\n\u201cI am very sad, he was someone who was part of our childhood and adolescence,\u201d said Mariela Barg, a lawyer in Buenos Aires. Thinking of him brought back memories of celebrating the World Cup win in 1986, she said.
\n\u201cHe was intertwined with something so Argentine as soccer, and now he is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning after the Argentine died following a heart attack news agency BUENOS AIRES: Heartbroken fans of Diego Maradona gathered on the streets of Buenos Aires to mourn the Argentine soccer legend\u2019s death on Wednesday, praying, laying flowers and singing patriotic and sport chants. President Alberto Fernandez declared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n