the same rivals, the same field and a tribute that will move

October is a month of celebration for soccer fans. Modern football was born, in London, with the creation of the English federation, on the 26th. Much later, in 1940, Skin the 23rd. Two key dates but foreign to Argentines, who have had the 20th and 30th of the tenth month of the year as emblematic, almost sacred dates, for almost five decades, both related to Diego Armando Maradona. He was born on October 30, 1960 and debuted in Primera on October 20, 1976.

Since that mythical day, Argentinos Juniors played again only five times on October 20three at home. However, this Sunday and after 48 years, El Bicho will once again face the same rival: Talleres de Córdoba, in the same stadium as in 1976 but now called Diego Armando Maradona, physically absent since November 25, 2020 .

The date will not go unnoticed. The club has prepared a special celebration at halftime and the presence of Rubén Aníbal Giacobetti is expectedthe player Diego replaced during the break of that dark year for the country politically but bright for the world of football.

The premiere of Diez It occurred on the eighth date of the National tournament, a competition that included many teams from the country, prohibited in the first tournament, called Metropolitan, which Boca had won two months before. Talleres was one of the hosts of the championship and had among its ranks: Luis Galvan, Michael Oviedo y Daniel The Frog Valenciafuture world champions in June 1978.

For a Wednesday afternoon there were many people in La Paternal. It is highlighted by the note of Clarion. It is not signed but was written by Miguel Ángel Bertolotto. “The game was promising. The second place in its area that Argentinos held and the recovery that Talleres de Córdoba had been hinting at – after a dark start to the championship – gave rise to getting closer to La Paternal. Therefore, at the time the ball was put in motion, the field was completely full. The 127 million old pesos that were raised give an approximate idea of ​​how crowded we had to be in the stands and stalls to follow the game.”the chronicle begins.

According to the AFA ticket sales record, Argentinos-Talleres was the match that sold the most tickets of the nine played that Wednesday: 7,737. That is to say, there were around 15,000 people in Juan Agustín García and Boyacá. Many claim that in the football and journalistic environment it was known that Maradona would make his debut.

There was even a delegation of journalists from The Graphic who took advantage of that afternoon to witness the birth – there is a photo that certifies that version. Thousands of fans also say that they were there that day, that they left before work, that they skipped school – those who went to high school in the afternoon -, that they knew that a phenomenon was going to debut. Thousands of thousands. But the numbers are irrefutable.

Talleres won 1-0 with a goal scored by Luis Antonio Ludueña 33 minutes into the first half. The image of the goal appeared on the cover of Clarion on October 21. Diego entered in the second half for Giacobetti. “The entry of the boy Maradona (on the 30th of this year he turns 16) gave greater mobility to the attack, but it was not the solution to seal greater possession of the ball on the Córdoba fence. Because Maradona – a great skill – had no one to play with.”. The wonderful story had begun.

Of the other four times that Argentinos played on October 20, Diego was present only in the first. Four years later, still as a player of the Animalagainst Platense on the Atlanta court, where the Squid He played local. It was an entertaining 3-3 in which Maradona scored his team’s third from a penalty to make it 3-2 six minutes from time and immediately tied the score. Raul Grimoldi.

Sunday, October 20, 1991 marked 15 years since its debut. That day, Clarion published the memory with the signature of Claudio Aisenbergwho in closing wrote: “Today, inactive due to the suspension that FIFA applied to him for doping (already retired from soccer, according to what he says) and undergoing recovery treatment, Diego Maradona will surely remember in an apartment in Núñez, with his family, that day when – in all the senses – began to change life”. That afternoon, on the Deportivo Español field, Argentinos tied with Rosario Central 2 to 2.

In December 2003, Argentinos reopened its stadium, which Diego Armando Maradona named. The following year, on October 20, they played as a visitor against Olimpo de Bahía Blanca with whom they tied 1-1. Diego was in HavanaCuba, as part of its recovery process. There he celebrated his 44th birthday.

Three years later, Argentinos returned to play at La Paternal on October 20 for the second time since 1976 and beat Racing 1-0 with a goal from Gabriel Penalba. Diego was in the country but did not go to the stadium that already bore his name. But there was a curiosity that day, according to the precise information of the historian Javier Roimiser, that day the Animal He completed his 600th match playing on his own court, since the first one he had in 1922.

Forty-eight years later, the same protagonists will be face to face in the same stadium that bears the name of that boy who debuted 10 days after turning 16 and with his talent, his goals and his charisma he got into everyone’s hearts the Argentines: the indelible Diego Armando Maradona.