“If Diego had returned to Naples he would be alive”
NAPLES – “I’m sure if Diego had come to Naples in recent years he would still be alive“: so the brother of the Pibe de Oro, Hugo Maradona, spoke to the microphones of Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli on the day of the first anniversary of the death of the unforgettable Argentine champion. The city is gathered around the symbolic places of his idol, from the stadium that now bears his name, to the places where his images tower over the city. His brother Hugo, who played in Italy in the late 1980s and mid-1990s, wanted to remember his brother: “We must remember Diego with happiness – he has declared – because he gave us so much on the pitch. I use the we because I too, like him, feel Neapolitan. I didn’t want to cry, but I can’t. Mine are tears of joy because it is always with us, it has never really left us. I will never be able to forget how Napoli celebrated their first Scudetto. I couldn’t wait for the game to end. When the referee ruled the deadline, I ran to my brother: I was the first to hug him. Diego had his flaws as we all have them. But in Naples he was fine, he was happy. I remember it was two in the morning, he said to me: Hugo, come with me, I want to see Naples. He took me along via Caracciolo. For him Naples was a second home“.