Maradona to be immortalized on Argentina bank notes
A proposal has been presented in the Argentinean Senate for Maradona and the Goal of the Century against England to be emblazoned on $1000 notes.
Diego Maradona became a national hero in Argentina when he led La Albiceleste to the 1986 World Cup, via two of the most famous goals ever scored in the history of the game against England in the quarter-finals: the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century. After the death of the former Barcelona and Napoli attacking midfielder at the age of 60 last month, the Argentinean government has tabled a formal motion in the Senate to have the second of the two, along with an image of Maradona’s face, immortalized on the country’s currency.
The idea, put forward by Norma Durango of the Frente de Todos political party, would see Maradona emblazoned on notes of $1000 or more during the next print run in 2021.
“The idea is to honour Maradona, warts and all,” Durango told Radio La Red. “The exceptionality of his life and his career was not without its excesses and mistakes, that which marks the Greek heroic tradition, at least in as much as it perceived by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy.”
Maradona to adorn 50 percent of $1000 notes
According to the text of the proposal, the idea is for the Bank of Argentina to “print 50 percent, as a minimum, of the total number of $1000 notes or denominations of a superior amount issued during the fiscal course of 2021 with the likeness of Diego Armando Maradona on one side and the moment when he scored the second goal against England, on 22 June 1986 in Mexico, on the other.”
There are also plans to issue a commemorative set of postage stamps for the year 2021 with Maradona on them, to cover his entire career “as a player and a coach with the clubs he represented and the World Cups he played at as a player and as coach of the Argentina national team.”