When the God answered

On the 6th of December 2008 came the biggest moment of my life as a football fan. The “Football God” himself had descended to Kolkata and I had the opportunity to attend his Press Conference at the ITC Sonar Bangla hotel. We reached there pretty early and were taken to the makeshift Press Area which was created at the hotel lawns. I just sat there and started to get excited to see non-other than Diego Armando Maradona himself. Never saw him play live but my Dad’s story about him and the recorded videos of his matches was enough for me to become his follower. During my school days, I had pasted his picture on my school dairy with a caption “God of Football”.

There were nearly a hundred media people and all of them had that look of excitement on there faces. That day I think all the journalists had become fans. I also over-heard one scribe talking to another about a possibility of a photo op with the “God”. But the security was tight and we were kept ten feet away from the dais. It did not matter to me at all as I was over the moon just to be there. I thought I will just sit there and listen to God answering the questions. Then the moment came someone shouted “He is coming” and there was chaos with the camera-persons running to get the best shot and some of the journos even trying to break the barrier and ask Maradona some questions, but none of them succeeded and he was quickly taken to the Dais.

Someone threw a ball at him. He caught it and put it on his head to balance but the ball didn’t stay. He caught it and said something in Spanish followed with a wink! his interpreter quickly translated that for us so we could also understand the sense of humor. He had said, “Out of touch these days, not good anymore”. But in the very next moment he proved that his ball skills were still intact, he not only balanced the ball on his head, he also joggled it with his shoulders, taking turns with his head, what made this special was that he was doing all these in such a limited area. After that, he gave a thumbs up and sat down. Made a short speech about his visit and the question, answer session with the Press started. I had already decided I will not ask any questions as I was in awe of God and also didn’t want to make myself a fool in front of so many senior sports Reporters. Simply put I was too nervous to ask any questions. So I just sat there trying to sink it all in. Never had I even dreamt that I could see the God of Football one day from such a close range.

Towards the end though, I suddenly felt an urge to ask him a question and started mustering the courage to call for a microphone. Courage finally arrived and it was at the nick of time, as mine was the last question he took I didn’t know how to address him, Sir? Mr. Maradona? Maradona? or simply Diego?.With that confusion in mind. I got up asked for the microphone and there I went choosing the last option “Diego! Diego! This side” I said. The God looked at me and I could hear myself on the loudspeakers, I was trembling like anything but also I asked him the question “Diego I have heard that people have built churches in your name and they go and worship you, How do you feel to be compared with God? He looked at the interpreter nodded and quickly replied in Spanish and smiled. The interpreter in turn translated that to English “It’s nice to be compared with God. But I have never felt like a god but you can call me God of Football if you want to”. Yes the God had answered.

(The photo I took that day with Ronny da, who unfortunately left this world forever recently sharing the frame with Maradona)