Javier Milei’s government scores own goal with Diego Maradona snub

The manifest hostility of Javier Milei’s government towards “lefties,” as the far-right president usually terms almost all those who criticize him, has crossed the border of metaphor. Milei’s spokesman on Tuesday ignored Diego Armando Maradona, the owner of one of the two most famous left legs in Argentine football, and although he achieved his goal of attracting attention, he also earned widespread ridicule.

Manuel Adorni, spokesman for the Casa Rosada, the seat of government, used part of his usual press conference to note that August 13 was International Left Handers Day and saluted a series of national figures in art and sports: Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María, Emanuel Ginóbili, Sergio “Maravilla” Martínez, Guillermo Vilas, Gustavo Cerati and Charly García, “great lefties,” he said, “who in these cases did contribute to the greatness of Argentina.” The clarification about “these cases” was intended as an ironic statement regarding those who have affinity with leftist ideas and who, from his perspective, do not contribute to the “greatness” of the nation.

The name omitted from the list of great Argentine sportsmen was naturally picked up on. One of the journalists present in the room remarked to Adorni that he had not included Maradona, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. “Who?” the spokesman asked. “Who?” he insisted when Maradona’s name was repeated. “Ah, yes, he was also a leftie,” he said dismissively.

Milei has always made clear his preference for Messi over Maradona. El Pibe de Oro, who died in 2020, is an uncomfortable figure for the right and the ultra-right in Argentina due to his political stance leaning towards Peronism and international figures of the left: Maradona sported a tattoo of Che Guevara on his right shoulder.

The response to Adorni’s provocation was swift. “Do I answer the muppet or not? Maybe I don’t even need to,” said actress Dalma Maradona, one of the soccer player’s daughters, insinuating that the spokesperson would not be up to her father’s standards. “He makes a comedy move of pretending to forget: horribly acted when they mention Maradona and he says ‘who?’ Whether you like it or not, Argentina is known around the world for the person you claim you don’t know, or you act like an idiot pretending you don’t know him,” she said on a streaming program. “Sports-wise, whether you like it or not, he represented Argentina and won.”

Gianinna Maradona also reacted on her social networks, posting an image of Adorni with the caption: “Boludos (idiots) are like ants, they are everywhere.” She also published a photo of a phrase that had been graffitied on a wall: “Careful, boludo, Diego is watching.”

Many voices from the sports world called out Milei’s spokesman. Former soccer player Juan Sebastián Verón, a teammate of Maradona at Boca Juniors and now president of Estudiantes de la Plata, said: “You can agree or disagree with everything [Maradona] was off the playing field. But you can’t disregard the person who made a country happy. Respect.”

“The best left-footer, without doubt,” added Napoli, the Italian club where Maradona displayed the best of his club footballing repertoire in the 1980s.

Another former player, Héctor “Negro” Enrique, who was a member of the Mexico 1986 World Cup-winning team, was quick to add his own thoughts. “Thank God you didn’t name the greatest of all: Diego. So, Adorni, there are idiots, proper idiots, and you.” More subtly, the physical trainer Fernando Signorini, who worked with Maradona, dedicated these words to the government spokesman: “You will be forgotten on the way from the wake to the cemetery.”

The controversy circulated throughout Tuesday on social networks. In today’s virtual world, messages published by the Argentine writer Carlos Busqued up until 2021, when he passed away, are usually recovered with prophetic attributions. On this occasion, someone recalled one he published before the death of the former Argentina captain: “Even dead, Maradona is more alive than you.”

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