Tribune. Diego Maradona is, before being a stadium footballer, a street footballer. His death brings mourning to the playing community which recognizes itself in this form of play. She sees in his way of playing the most complete expression of that which takes place outside the football fields.
On the stadium, the coveted object is the target. In the street, it is the elegant elimination of an opponent. When a player comes out of a duel by offering the others the spectacle of a gesture which until then seemed improbable, he is elevated to the rank of recognized player. A nickname is assigned to him. He is consecrated. It often happens that the nickname of Maradona is attributed to him. The pupil then joins the teacher.
The purists of an academic football perceive the duel as a reckless risk-taking or an unnecessary waste of time. Maradona made it, despite the dominant representations, a moment of truth. His dazzling and effective responses to the obstacles in front of him put this face-to-face at the center of the game.
Some believe that the pass unites and the dribble isolates, Maradona has shown everyone that the dribble unites and makes the pass a simple tactical substitute. He proved that the street player, instinctive, handyman, fond of divergent technical responses, could be the counterpart of a thoughtful, ingenious player, with orthodox technical solutions.
Precarious balance
In the street, unlike in the stadium, the rule does not govern the game. The game is the rule. Everything is done so that the progress of the game is not interrupted by a gap in the framework set between players. This precarious balance is based on respect for the word given and not on the gaze of a sworn referee. Maradona totally embodied this inversion of the rule. Only the game was authoritative in his eyes.
He played the rule arbitrated. The hand that allowed him to score a goal against the English in the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup on June 22, 1986 illustrates this principle. By attributing to God the responsibility for his act, he nullified the power of judgment of men. Only that of his peers mattered.
In the time of ordinary existence, the game is not strategic. It is figurative. It highlights the image of the juggler, “The artist who plays with the gravity of things, throws them, catches them, makes them perform an aerial ballet” (Myths and rituals today, by Gillo Dorfles, 1975). Maradona belonged to this family of children of the ball, virtuosos of the round ball. By imposing a way of playing, he enchanted and reinvented the game.
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