Four anecdotes from Signorini about his life with Maradona: when he hitchhiked a plane and the only time she invited him to take cocaine

“Diego from within”, is called the book that Fernando Signorini, historical physical trainer of Maradona, wrote in collaboration with Luciano Wernicke and Fernando Molina (former press officer of Pelusa) recounting his experiences with the idol. “It is not a new biography of Maradona. Nor is it a story about Maradona, but about Diego, the warm, generous and human being who shone on and off the pitch, based on the experiences he lived with the man who knew him most deeply: his personal fitness trainer Fernando Signorini ”, reads the review of the work, which explains its spirit. In that context, the Blind, as Ten affectionately called his friend, has a great level of detail from the day he met him in Barcelona, ​​through the unprecedented partnership between the two (then it was not customary for footballers to have a personal FP), the particular methods of motivation, and the lights and shadows of the star, including his entry into the world of drugs, which the narrator locates in Catalonia: “I am convinced that the idyll originated the night in which his transfer to Napoli was celebrated” . Here, four anecdotes that are part of the unmissable publication.

THE DAY YOU MADE A MIRACLE WITH A PHOTO

Once, a Napoli colleague, Pietro Puzone, asked him to participate in a game for the benefit of a boy from Acerra -a town located a few kilometers from Naples- who had to have an urgent palate operation and did not have sufficient financial means . He accepted, but the club leaders found out and asked him not to do it, because they knew the municipal stadium where the match would take place – a dirt field that had been turned into a quagmire by heavy rain the night before – and they feared their star would be injured. Diego didn’t care. He loved helping everyone … and also playing in the mud. For him, a muddy court was better than Wembley. It represented returning to the sources, to Villa Fiorito. Play ball and not soccer. The taste for the simple, the authentic. We went to Acerra and Diego enjoyed that muddy and slippery terrain, from which everything came out brown and with water dripping from his curlers. But the most important thing was that the money was raised to pay for the boy’s operation.

We returned to Naples by a narrow and winding road. Diego’s car led a caravan that included the vehicles of other boys who had participated in the benefit meeting. In a curve to the left, we saw that a car that was traveling a few meters in front of us, in the same direction, lost control and rolled over. Diego braked and got out to help the injured: three boys who had escaped from their car with bruises and cuts caused by the blow. But, As soon as they saw who was standing next to them, they recovered immediately!

-Diego, Mamma mía! Cosa ci fai qui? -the kids shouted. They were so happy that they forgot about the bumps and pains and asked their idol to pose with them for a photograph. Diego had miraculously cured them.

HOW DIEGO PRACTICED IN HIS CHILDHOOD THE “DECEPTION” IN THE GOALS TO THE ENGLISH

Diego was also used to cheating because, perhaps, without that help he would often not eat. He practiced that first goal against the English since he was little: I was going to the Fiorito train station, where there was a stand selling fruit. He had studied that the train arrived, braked on the platform, the doors opened, passengers got off and on, the doors closed after 30 seconds, and the formation resumed its march. Diego was walking along the platform and, when the convoy stopped and the doors opened, he had already chosen the apple, or the banana, or the orange. He slapped his hand, got into the car through one door and got out the other. When the stallholder reacted, Diego was already a couple of blocks from the station enjoying his snack.

In England’s second goal, the one that encouraged the rapporteur Víctor Hugo Morales to describe it as a “cosmic kite”, Diego also made use of deception. From the time he took the ball that Negro Héctor Enrique passed him to the finish, it took him 12 seconds to run 55 meters. I have no doubt that, in a race over the same distance in a track and field race, Diego would have lagged behind the five Englishmen he left behind. But he surpassed them all thanks to his mischief. deception makes the weak strong and the slow swift. It is the most important resource in football: pretending to do something and invent something else.

THE DAY DIEGO FINGERED ON A PLANE

After Napoli drew goalless with AC Milan at the Giuseppe Meazza, an unusual anecdote happened: Diego took advantage of the trip to the capital of Lombardy to visit a clothing store, if I remember correctly from the Versace brand. The game ended and he left the stadium for the city center. I went with the club’s sports director, Luciano Moggi, to the airport, where the team was supposed to board a regular flight. We waited for the Capitano until the last second and, as he did not arrive on time, we left without him. How did Diego return to Naples? When he arrived at the airport, very late, there were no commercial flights left to leave and the place was about to close. The hall was almost empty. Suddenly, a boy approached Diego to ask for an autograph. Although he had been stranded by his delay, he was in an excellent mood: he took the paper and pen from the boy’s hands and stamped his signature. Then he handed them back to her and patted her head. The kid walked away, happy. While Diego was debating what to do to return to Naples, he was approached by a very elegant man, impeccably dressed. The man introduced himself as the father of the boy in the autograph and thanked him for the gesture he had made with his son.

-What are you doing here at this time? she asked him.

-I came to take a flight, but I was late and the plane left without me.

– Was he traveling to Naples?

-Yes.

-Do you want to get to Naples tonight?

-Yes, but there are no flights …

-Wait a moment please.

The guy walked away to make a phone call and returned with Diego.

-If you want, I’ll take it. I’m going south on a private plane. I can leave it in Naples and then I continue my journey.

Diego accepted and returned home that same night. He’s the first person I know who hitchhiked a plane.

THE ONLY TIME MARADONA INVITED HIM TO TAKE A DRUG (AND REFUSED)

One afternoon Mary, her sister, called me.

-Profe, Diego says if he can come home, because he wants to talk to you.

I got into a taxi and went to the house where Mary lived, which was in a condominium next to the Parco della Rimembranza. When I arrived, she received me herself and sent me to her room. The door was closed, I knocked and it was opened by Diego’s brother-in-law, whom we all knew as The Walrus. Inside there were about five people, and Diego was sitting on the double bed, leaning against the backrest. I said hello and he asked the others to leave us alone.

“I have to speak to the Prof,” he explained.

They all came out and I sat on the edge of the bed.

-What’s the matter, the?

He began to speak, without a clear direction, going around, until finally he got to the point: he invited me to drink merchandise.

“This makes us talk,” he assured me. However, I noticed that right away it was difficult for him to find the right words that he wanted to express. What’s more, he was suddenly speechless. I looked at him without saying a peep.

-AND? What are you saying?

-I say no.

-Because?

-Because when I am happy, I want to know why; And when I’m sad I also want to know why When I need to speak, I speak, I don’t need anything.

-OK that’s fine…

-That was all?

-Yes.

-OK, bye. See you tomorrow.

I left the room, greeted the others, and went home. It was the only time he proposed something like this to me. He never tried again.

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