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Image Released, Pink House
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Large crowds lined up for Maradona’s farewell ceremony
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Large crowds gathered in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, for the funeral of soccer legend Diego Maradona, in an atmosphere full of sadness and grief.
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Thousands marched behind Maradona’s coffin before it was buried in a private ceremony. The police had to intervene to control the waves of people who had come to the funeral.
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The government declared a three-day mourning period, mourning the departure of the national hero on Wednesday, due to a heart attack, aged 60.
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On Thursday, Maradona’s body was shrouded in front of the presidential palace in a coffin wrapped in the national flag, and on it is the number 10 shirt that the player was known to during his football career with his country.
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In the middle of the day the line of mourners was a kilometer long, and the police clashed with many of them when they tried to close the vicinity of the palace at four in the evening.
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There were reports of the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd wanting to take a final look at Maradona’s body.
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Image Released, Reuters
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An atmosphere of sadness and sorrow loomed over Buenos Aires
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One of the mourners, whose name is Robin Hernandez, said the police had taken over the crowd.
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He said in a statement to Reuters: “We were standing in line quietly, and the police started firing rubber bullets. It’s crazy. All I wanted is to say goodbye to Diego.”
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Then the government extended the period by two hours, but that was also not enough for many of the mourners to reach the coffin.
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Then the funeral procession proceeded to the Bella Vista cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
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Maradona’s family members and a number of his former players had attended a private eulogy earlier.
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“It was everything for us”
In the Italian city of Naples, where Maradona spent 7 years as a player, the fans of the team gathered on the stadium to mourn the deceased, shouting “Diego, Diego.”
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On the second day, the fans violated the closure procedures imposed due to the spread of the Corona virus, and crowds went out to pay tribute to Maradona before the start of the Naples match, as for the Croatian team Rijeka in the Europa League competition, which took place without an audience.
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“He was exceptional, and he represented everything for us in Naples,” a Napoli supporter, Gianni Auteur, told Reuters.
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Maradona, considered one of the greatest soccer players in history, has gone through volatile periods in his career as he fell addicted to cocaine and alcohol. He underwent brain surgery in November and was receiving treatment for alcoholism.
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And local media reported that he died of a “heart attack”.
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He died in his home near Buenos Aires, and his nephew, Johnny Esposito, was the last to see Maradona Gia, according to official reports.
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He left 5 children and his 58-year-old ex-wife Claudia Villavan, whom he separated in 2004 after twenty years of marriage.
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