My special encounter with legendary Maradona in Dubai

 By K.R. Nayar

Being a cricket writer, I did not get the opportunity to trail Maradona even while he was in Dubai for a while. But my first meeting with him here was unique....much unlike my meetings with other sporting legends. My conclusion at the end of that meeting was that 'if only this genius had controlled his temperament just like he had controlled the ball.....'

Diego Maradona poses with Kerala Under-12 boys at the Al Wasl Club

Diego Maradona had worked in Dubai as the coach of two football clubs and was also the 'Sporting Ambassador' of the Dubai Sports Council.  It was a great feeling to have this greatest football legend living here and serve in different roles from 2011. Many of my soccer-crazy friends living outside of the UAE, who are big Maradona fans, were envious of the fact that I was working as a sports journalist in a city where this legend lived.

Given that I was reporting on cricket and soccer was not my beat, there was no opportunity for me to meet him face to face.  But that wait ended on November 25, 2013 when I was assigned to report an international conference on ‘Sports versus Crime’ organised by Dubai Police at the Police Officers Club. Like most fans all over the world, I too had never seen Maradona in action live, except on television. As I stood along with all other reporters waiting to get a closer look at the legend, I recalled some of the great goals he had scored in the World Cup matches. Then what followed was one of the strangest and unprecedented experiences for me as a reporter.

Whenever we meet a sporting legend, our first instinct is to ask him questions that are positive so as to evoke an inspiring comment. Never did I imagine that my first meeting and his comment would be on a dark phase of his career. Since the conference was discussing Sports Versus Crime, the authorities had also flown in sprinter Ben Johnson, who was earlier stripped of his Olympic Gold for consuming performance-enhancing drugs in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was a brave initiative by the organisers to get these top two sportsmen to confess their mistakes and enlighten people on how not to indulge in any wrongdoing.

To listen to a hero to talk about his mistakes in life when one meets him for the first time wasn’t easy to accept and even more difficult to write about. Frankly, I was touched when Maradona said: “I am not ashamed to talk about it (drug abuse). I won over it and I am happy I did it. My life is much better now. I would never want anyone, especially the young generation to go through what I went through during this period.”

This picture of  Ben Johnson and Diego Maradona was shot by  Gulf News photographer Zarina Fernandez before the start of the international conference on 'Sports versus Crime' in Dubai 

It was a difficult moment for me listening to confessions from a great sporting hero whose dazzling antics with the ball always left me spellbound, and I would love to watch him, again and again, beating all defenders and scoring those impossible goals, especially the one against England in 1986. Maradona turned emotional about his past and his mistakes. and said: “I went through a dark period of my life. It seemed like travelling through a black tunnel. I've recovered mainly due to the love for my daughter and grandson Benjamin.”

Kerala and West Bengal are two soccer-crazy states in India. Since I come from Kerala, I have witnessed the adoration people have for Maradona even in the remotest parts of the state. For many he is a God, and most youngsters have his image stuck on the walls of their home.  So you can imagine the joy of a group of Kerala Under -12 boys when they got to meet this legend in Dubai!

 A charity organisation, an initiative of the Shabana and Faizal Foundation called KEF Group, sponsored a Kerala Under-12 team to play in Dubai’s International Super Cup. These boys were playing against Al Wasl Club when Maradona arrived. Al Wasl officials asked Maradona if the boys could meet him, and when he agreed they were thrilled. Maradona walked in and shook hands with all of them and posed for a picture, kneeling down to be on par with the height of the young boys. When this picture was published in the Gulf News, all the boys were super-thrilled and wanted to have a copy of the paper as their most prized possession.

Maradona was like many geniuses, an eccentric. As coach of the Al Wasl club, he had manhandled a fan through the fence as the crowd made some bad remarks on his grandson Benjamin, who was with him that day. If only Maradona had control over his temperament like he had over the football he could have been the ideal role model for youngsters not only for his deeds on the field but off the field too!