Diego Maradona 1960-2020: an appreciation

It was a dream come true.
I’d emptied my savings tin,
My broad smile stretched
From Bognor to Berlin

I would be the proud owner
Of a Diego Maradona boot,
Now the barrel-chested ones,
Latest fanclub recruit

Sprinting down Whitechapel Road,
I dragged along me Mam –
Dropping a shopping bag en route,
Shattering a jar of jam

“You wear them, you’ll play like him,”
The shop assistant said.
I believed every single word.
My beaming smile spread.

A walking Ambassador I became,
I put those boots to use
On grass, tarmac, concrete
Each time I got set loose.

Wear them on the old sandpitch
In the thick of the Berner Estate:
Not ideal for that surface,
But that was open to debate.

Even wore them to school
On an odd day or three.
“Get them off right now!”
Hawkeyed Margaret would scream.

Wore them into the ground,
Even when they were a goner.
Yes, the one and only
Puma Maradona.

Goodbye to you Armando,
A Druid, a one off edition.
Eternal Gracias Dieguito –
Football’s flawed magician.

25 11 20
number7

© emdad rahman

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