“Diego Maradona lived a thousand lives”, was heard more than once since the idol passed away. It is that in 60 years, the Ten lived in Spain, Italy, Dubai, Mexico and Argentina, to name just a few places.

He met Pope John Paul II and Francis, rubbed shoulders with sheikhs and world leaders, world celebrities surrendered at his feet and even got Enzo Ferrari to make one of his first cars in black.
His personal life was also a whirlwind of emotions, of encounters and misunderstandings, of joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the aforementioned phrase could well apply to his people as well.

Today Dieguito Fernando is eight years old and although he has not (yet) lived a thousand lives like his father, he has already heard about removals, reunions and, unfortunately, about losses.

“For him, Diego was not the soccer star, but he was just his dad. When we go to the field, at night he takes me out and starts looking at the stars to see his father. He looks at the sky and looks for it among the stars, and when it is cloudy he says: ‘It’s cloudy, Dad can’t take care of me’ “, Mario said Baudry, guardian of the baby and partner of Verónica Ojeda.

On his first birthday without his father, Dieguito will be as always, very close to his mother, who accompanies him and helps him through his grief.

He also takes refuge in his maternal grandparents and in the brother of the former physical education teacher, “visits with the family do him very well”, the lawyer had said a while ago. One of the toughest issues for mom and son is managing the exposure the sports idol still has.

“His father is on any television that he turns on,” said the Ojeda couple, which requires support from her.

Verónica Ojeda, Diego and Dieguito Fernando

Verónica Ojeda, Diego and Dieguito Fernando. 

Dieguito was born in the last minutes of February 13, 2013 in Argentina, while his father was in the United Arab Emirates working. The relationship between father and son was never very fluid.

Every time the athlete traveled to Buenos Aires there was a sporadic encounter with the baby, until in 2019 they met and seeing him so great, independent and sweet, Diego made a click and decided to twist the course of the relationship.

“Dieguito lived alone. Why didn’t I see it before? I am guilty, and I have no excuses for anything. Today, Dieguito plays hide-and-seek with his cousins, jumping into the pool by himself. Yesterday we threw down a wall and scored a goal, “said the star two years ago, deciding to separate more from the youngest of his children.

“Dad, how I missed you, I love you”, would have been the magic words that the boy said to the then technical director of Los Dorados de Sinaloa.

“I want him to bring it to me (Ojeda a Dieguito) every day that I am in Buenos Aires. So that? Because he told me ‘dad’ for the first time “Maradona said proudly, making a clean slate.

It was then that mother and son traveled to Mexico to start a new life, near Pelusa. Although a few months later they returned to the country and after that they did not see each other again for a while, that coexistence was enough for them to Diego and Dieguito formed an unbreakable bond: the boy accompanied him to his work, they played ball together and the God of Napoli even disguised himself as a dinosaur to see his son smile.

Last year, Dieguito spent the quarantine and isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic at his home with his mother in Ezeiza. “He’s having a pretty good time. Sometimes boring, but I try to keep him doing things all the time. We are doing well and doing our part to stay at home ”, Ojeda had told a little less than a year ago. Teleshow.

Dieguito in his father's arms

Dieguito in his father’s arms 

Like almost all boys his age, he made a lot of video calls with his grandparents and little friends. In addition, he continued with his classes virtually, and also with therapies, many of which he continues to do today.

Diegui -as his mom affectionately calls him- he has TEL (specific language disorder) Y he does phonoology, piscopedagogy and attends an occupational therapist.

Just towards the middle of the yearo Dieguito Fernando saw his father again. From there they continued to meet, and even went to the court together, to a game of Gymnastics and Fencing in La Plata.

November 25, 2020 was one of the saddest days for the country. After 1:30 p.m. the media announced the news that everyone hoped would never arrive, Diego Maradona had died. That night the youngest of his children, accompanied by his mother, went to see him off at the Casa Rosada where the idol was veiled.

Two days earlier they had come to visit him. “Diego was lying on the bed, but he talked to her and greeted Dieguito. Verónica said to him ‘why don’t you get up, take a bath and shave?’, And he said yes, and then he left and Verónica left” Baudry said. Perhaps aware that he would be leaving soon, in those days Maradona had sent him a message, asking him to take care of the little one.

“My two angels who take care of me from heaven (my father my grandfather), I will always remember them like this, with a smile”, the boy posted a few days ago on his Instagram account that he runs with his mother, along with a photo of Diez and Don Diego, playing with him in a hammock.

Dieguito will blow out his eight candles this afternoon with his mother, and although his father will not be physically there, he will be accompanying him from another place, as he himself wrote. Because Diego Maradona did not leave, he is in the love and memory of each Argentine, and that will remain forever.

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