In the capital of Argentina, the house where legendary football player Diego Maradona lived with his family as a teenager has become a museum. Its exhibition – about two thousand of the player’s personal belongings – sheds light on a little-known period of Maradona’s life that preceded his brilliant career.
Maradona, now 55, lived with his family in a two-story house in the Paternal district of Buenos Aires in the late 1970s while playing for soccer club Argentinos Juniors. Actually, the club provided this housing – an unprecedented case in itself – to the family of a young talented football player as an additional bonus to the concluded contract, Maradona’s first professional football contract in his life. A copy of that same agreement has now become one of the central exhibits of the museum. There is also a copy of the cup won by Maradona as part of the Argentine national team at the World Cup in 1986. Nearby there are many posters, newspaper clippings, photographs. In one of them, for example, Diego is sitting on the steps of the porch, holding documents for the house in his hands. Maradona dedicated this achievement, as stated in the caption to the photo, to his father. Or, Diego and his brothers are playing table tennis in the backyard.
The museum itself belongs to the former coach of the Argentinos Juniors team, Alberto Perez. He had to spend several years negotiating with the lady who moved into the house after Maradona’s family before he was able to buy it for $100,000. Then several more years were spent on repairs, arrangement of the museum, selection of exhibits, including furniture. The owner of the museum tried to restore the modest furnishings of the apartment: the football player’s room, the kitchen, the living room. Diego’s bedroom on the second floor has a wooden bed with a blue quilt, a small desk, and a lamp. There are posters from sports magazines on the walls, and stacks of music records on the floor. In the living room, the TV plays the 1986 World Cup final continuously. But there was no toilet inside the house – it was installed outside, which, according to the coach, to some extent contributed to the hardening of Maradona. The museum is open free of charge. And for now only on weekends.
By the way, the stadium of the Argentinos Juniors football club, located in the same Paternal area, now bears the name of Maradona. And the football player himself was awarded the title of honorary resident of Buenos Aires.
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