The Argentine presidency’s “forgetting” of Diego Armando Maradona when mentioning leading figures from the South American country on International Left-Hander Day, which is celebrated this Tuesday, has sparked a strong controversy in Argentina.
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The spokesman for the Argentine Presidency, Manuel Adorni, closed his usual press conference at the Casa Rosada (headquarters of the Executive) on Tuesday by greeting “to Lionel Messi, to Angel di Maria, to Emanuel Ginobili, to Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez and to Guillermo Vilas”, as well as “to great Argentine musicians such as Gustavo Cerati and Charly Garcia”.
And he added, making a play on words with the ideological left-wing (left-wing politics) to which the Argentine president, Javier Milei, and the libertarian environment usually refer: “Great left-wingers who in these cases did contribute to the greatness of Argentina.”
The journalists present in the press room pointed out to him that he had forgotten another illustrious Argentine left-hander, none other than the former footballer and former national team coach of the Albiceleste, world champion in 1986, so he had to add: “Who? Oh, yes, he was left-handed.”
The reaction of Maradona’s heirs
The reactions were not long in coming and, shortly after, Maradona’s official Instagram account, managed by his heirs, published a harsh post addressed to Adorni: “The left-hander you forgot is the idol of all those you named… Happy day to all those who, on a daily basis, overcome the difficulties of a world designed only for right-handed people.”
His daughter Dalma called Adorni a ‘muppet’ and stated on her social networks that “He is someone’s spokesman, he cannot say what he thinks.”
For its part, the official account of Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, the team of which Maradona was coach when he died on November 25, 2020, shared a photograph of ‘El Diego’ and wrote “Immortal left-hander” next to a blue heart.
Other reactions
One of the harshest messages was from the 1986 world champion, Héctor Adolfo Enrique, who posted a video on social media in which he criticized Adorni.
“I received a video of this kid: Adorni; he is the world champion of idiots and thinks he is smart. Thank God, you didn’t name the greatest of all: Diego. So, Adorni: there are the idiots, the very idiots and you,” said ‘Negro Enrique’.
Another figure from the world of football, the former footballer and current president of Estudiantes de La Plata, Juan Sebastián Verón, highlighted in an Instagram story: “You may agree or not with everything that happened off the field, but you cannot ignore the person who made a country happy. Respect.”
Fernando Signorini, who was the personal physical trainer of ‘Pelusa’ in the World Cups in Mexico 1986, Italy 1990 and the United States 1994, also spoke out severely when he posted on his X account: “You will be forgotten on the way from the wake to the cemetery.”
Maradona was always close to Peronism, the ideological line that governed 16 of the last 20 years in Argentina and who is now in the opposition following the rise to the Presidency of Milei, a great football fan who considers Lionel Messi to be the best Argentine player in history.
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