Farewell GOAT
Dear Coilers, Maradona has passed away!...
...The late Zvonimir Magdić Amigo was the first Croatian journalist to watch Maradona live.
As a journalist for “Sportske novosti”, he also wrote the first article about him, and Anton Samovojska published an article about Amigo and Maradona on March 12, 2009 – on the occasion of the publication of Amigo’s book “Maradona, the little green one”. He wrote:
One May morning, in the late seventies, in the “Zvjerinjak”, a cafe bar near Ban Jelačić Square, Bernard Vukas Bajdo and Zvonimir Magdić Amigo were part of a larger crew. As the English Cup final match was being played that day, we all started getting ready to go home. Except for Magdić.
Surprised, Bajdo asked Magdić: “Amigo, aren't you going to watch the finals?”
“No, I'm not going to” Magdić replied.
“But why? The English teams are playing” – replied Bajdo. “Don't you like English football?” Bajdo Vukas insisted.
“Oh, Bajdo, look at this... I come home, sit in the armchair and turn the TV on. The English right-back takes the ball and kicks it. I get up, go to the the kitchen, make tea, go back in front of the TV, and the ball is still in the air. What is there to see here? ” The crew almost died laughing. Amigo is truly a special author, and such is, no doubt, the book, whose editor is none other than Ante Kostelić (father and coach of Janica and Ivica who won 10 Olimpic medals combined)!
Magdić met Maradona in 1978 in Buenos Aires. Maradona was 18 years old and was crowned an attribute of the a world’s best young footballer. But that was not enough for Cesar Luis Menotti to put him in the national team of Argentina, which will win the title of World Champions on their own soil...
Thanks to Rudolf Kralj, a man from Zagreb, Croatia, who was Menotti's right-hand, Magdić managed to do his first interview with Maradona in Buenos Aires...
...Then he followed the footsteps of Maradona, lurking for even the tiniest chance for the new encounters. The book describes all of Maradona's incidents and accidents, and Magdić's incidents and accidents with Maradona...
...Like the one, which introduces us to the detail in which Maradona became a “little green one”: “On May 21, 1980, the editorial office sent me to Vienna for a friendly match Austria Vs Argentina. They told me,: “You have 22 lines.” The match was terrible, Argentina destroyed Austria 5:1, and Maradona scored three. A book could be written, and I had 22 lines only. I‘ve sent exactly 22, because if I had sent 24, they would have immediately shortened 2 lines. I gave the report the title: “Diego, are you a little green one?”
When the text reached the editorial office, the first thing there was laughter, then general outrage and, finally, the message: “Zvonimir, we are sending you on a trip, you are spending state money, and what are you doing? You're sending us some nonsense about “a little green one.” What a “little green”?! That won't work for you. “ It didn't work out “- says Magdić. – It wasn’t published...
Of course, this story got an interesting sequel. “In the fall of 1982, in the second round of the European Cup (now UEFA Champions League), Red Star and Barcelona played in Belgrade. The weather was rough, the pitch bad, but Maradona had one of those days of his. Receiving the ball, at one point he intended to lob the Red Star goalkeeper. When he kicked the ball, I said, “If this is a Goal, I'm going home.”...
...It was The Goal... but I didn't go home. After the match, I have written an article entitled, “Diego, you're a little green one after all.” That title was published because then everyone has realized that Maradona really was – The little green one ... “
Armando Diego Maradona – 1960-2020
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