El 30 de octubre/October 30th

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¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Diego Maradona (apodo: "El Pibe de Oro") (1960-       )!

(image from esquire.com)

LEGENDARY soccer player from Argentina who alongside Pelé won FIFA's Player of the 20th Century Award, Diego Maradona (El Diego) was discovered by a talent scout when he was 8 years old. At 16, he was playing professionally. He played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico in which he led his team to victory over West Berlin (it was in the quarterfinals of that World Cup that he had his infamous "Hand of God" goal and famous "Goal of the Century"). The 2019 documentary Diego Maradona, by Academy Award winning director Asif Kapadia, shows Maradona's life in all its complications (Kapadia also directed the films Amy, about Amy Winehouse, and Senna, about Ayrton Senna, and calls his film on Maradona "the third part of a trilogy about child geniuses and fame." Maradona, who was married to Claudia Villafañe from 1984 to 2004 and had daughters Dalma (1987) and Gianinna (1989) with her, also has a son, Diego Sinagra (1986), who he did not recognize officially until 2007, and another son Diego, born in 2013 to longtime partner Verónica Ojeda. He has a daughter, Jana, born in 1996, who he officially recognized in  2014 (and there are many accounts of other children, including three in Cuba). Maradona also struggled with addiction (cocaine and alcohol) before becoming clean in 2004. He was good friends with Fidel Castro and has a tattoo dedicated to him, and another dedicated to Che Guevara. He also expressed sympathy for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez before his death and, despite openly criticizing the United States during the Bush administration, he did express some admiration for Barack Obama. Pope Francis inspired him to return to the religion of his childhood. 

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

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