Maradona: mito popular, símbolo peronista, voz plebeya

Abstract

In the context of a reflection on the relationship between sport and identities, the text addresses concepts such as culture, popular hero or subalternity by analyzing the scope of the figure of Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona. His death in November 2020, which provoked huge demonstrations of public grief, unleashed an intense coverage that abused terms such as myth, symbol, hero, idol and identity. The key question revolved around the extent to which Maradona, a peerless sportsman and simultaneously a conflictive public figure, due to his personal conduct (including sports convictions and criminal cases for drug use) and his political positions linked to left-wing populism, could be considered a symbol of a presumed national identity.