In a London photography studio, a man stands on a ladder and tries to lower a box. His name is Dominic, he is 38 years old and leads a carefree life; He goes to good restaurants, has the right friends and goes to the best parties. He is a little arrogant because he feels like nothing bad could ever happen to him. But Dominic falls from the ladder from a considerable height, and from that moment everything changes: he has to undergo spinal surgery almost unprecedented in the history of England (other doctors give him an 80 percent chance of not surviving), and he narrowly avoids becoming paraplegic. Twelve years later, the same man welcomes LA NACION in a wine bar in Palermo: he lives with his girlfriend in Buenos Aires and is the English journalist who best understood and tried to explain the Maradona phenomenon.
Why does an Englishman become such a fan of Maradona that he writes essays about Diego and devotes semi-philosophical lectures to him? Just an Englishman? There is no single answer to the questions, just a few coordinates and arrows of fate (like those cursed stairs) that led Dominic there from his hometown of Barnet – a district north of London City of Rage.
Dominic was born in Barnet in 1975 and grew up in a rural town in Hertfordshire. He was a football fan from birth. He was an Arsenal fan and admired players such as Trevos Brooking, Liam Brady, Michel Platini and Paolo Rossi. But over time, he and his elementary school friends began to idolize the rising figures of Latin American soccer.
“Our football was unconventional, visually boring, almost mechanical. It lacked the epicness or passion of the Latin American players, who were like romanticized heroes for us. And after Mexico 1986, Diego became part of my life: we all wanted to be him; at halftime we played as if we were Maradona and avoided the defenders,” he remembers.
-You were 11 years old when you saw the Argentina-England match at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. What did you feel when Diego shot the goal with his hand and a few minutes later scored one of the best goals in history?
-We didn’t care about the hand goal. We felt that Diego was a “child” like us, not a man. And I feel like something incredible happened in that game, because until then no one in England could understand your idea of “Creole liveliness”. Those 90 minutes were a movie: he scored a goal with his hand and showed his Creole liveliness, but then he scored the best goal in history and proved he could do both. There are people in England who still hate him for that. But I think this match was the triumph of something romantic.
From Bruce Willis to Buenos Aires
Dominic studied philosophy and, after completing his master’s degree at Oxford, spent the next two decades writing for newspapers and magazines around the world (L.A. Times, The country, The Critic, Toronto Star), including fiction and autobiographical essays.
The journalist took a break from his career when he was still in his thirties and began working as a photographer at celebrity events. “One day I arrived at a mansion without really knowing who I had to take photos of and met Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner and John Malkovich,” he recalls.
After the accident in the photo studio in 2013 and after the risky spinal surgery, he returned to his parents’ home and began a long rehabilitation. “My life in London collapsed. It was us Hipsters but suddenly I wasn’t anymore Cool“, he remembers. A few years later he met his long-term girlfriend – he met her two months before the operation and supported him throughout the entire time Rehab– She told him that she had been offered a job in Buenos Aires and asked Dominic to accompany her.
“I moved to Buenos Aires knowing nothing about the city, like a blank page. I knew the obvious: Maradona, Messi, steak,” he laughs.
What happened here was love at first sight. Dominic was crazy about the city and started a new routine: walking around the neighborhoods for hours every day, taking notes, constantly writing and telling stories about Buenos Aires. And his passion for Diego Armando Maradona also became strong.
“This country is a constant source of inspiration. I just have to leave the apartment and go for a walk. There’s always something going on. You never get bored,” he says.
“Hate on both sides”
A few weeks ago Dominic gave a talk about Maradona at a wine bar in Palermo (Cava Savarin). He read two essays and said that before the event, which he shared on Instagram, he received quite aggressive comments from both sides: Argentinians and English. “Because I was born in England, some may think that I hate Maradona. They don’t understand that Diego has been part of my life since I was a child. I have received hatred from both sides,” he says.
-Why were you obsessed with writing about Maradona?
– For many reasons. When I was a boy there was no person more famous than him. To recognize him, it was enough to see his silhouette drawn on the wall. He was an example of a global hero before social media existed. I don’t think there are many like him; No human could generate so many good and bad opinions at the same time. He is a tragic hero who can embody human successes and failures. Writing about Diego feels like writing about a god. You have to choose your words very carefully, which always makes me a little nervous.
-In one of your essays you talk about the madness that was Maradona’s funeral, which you wanted to go to but were driven away by the tear gas in the Plaza de Mayo. What do you remember about that day?
-It was chaotic and it just kept getting worse. It was in the middle of a pandemic and it seemed like with the excuse of the funeral, social distancing had come to an end. There was no “protocol” anymore. We were on the pitch when the fumes started. In no other country could something like this have happened. It was “real,” is the word that comes to mind; Just like when five million people went to the obelisk after the World Cup final. I guess I was a little jealous.
-Jealous?
– When I think about Diego’s funeral, I think that nothing was organized or manipulated by the media or politicians. There was real sadness, people cried, remembered and also laughed at the wonderfulness of those memories. This country has a melancholy that is in everything. Even when they won the World Cup, it was both joy and tears: everyone was united in the obelisk, from the townspeople to the upper classes. Maybe that’s why I said “jealous”: I always wanted to live in a place where people love their country as much as they do here.
-Will Maradona always be more epic than Messi?
-Perhaps I would say that Messi’s story is a little more “stable”. On the other hand, Maradona’s transformation arc was incredible. He was born in such a poor place and was a hero who truly came from the dirt. We can all make mistakes that ruin our lives. But we still get up and carry on. We are all more Maradona than Messi. Argentina is more Maradona than Messi.
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