Sport has a mystique all its own linked to the “brothers of”, sometimes not without talent, crushed by such a surname. Sad, lonely and final: those who, when they arrive, are all thanks to those who have paved the way for them; ideal faces for the pillory, when they do not arrive. Which, the latter, is much more probable for the law of large numbers. The club of Serse Coppi and Ferruccio Mazzola, but also of Hugo Maradona, who died of a heart attack at 52 years of age. “Huguito” did the same job as D10S without being. He was nine years younger and, ironically, he leaves a year, a month and three days after Him.
In the embrace of Naples
He goes to his home in Monte di Procida because, unlike him, he had given himself up to the end of the embrace of Naples, the only city in the world where the name Maradona has a sacred character. He returned there after his farewell to the football fields, at the end of the nineties and, apart from a brief experience as a coach in the United States, he was happy, coaching boys from local football schools and teams from the minor leagues such as Boys Quarto. , Mariano Keller and Real Parete. He arrived in Italy 18 years old: Maradona senior imposed on Ferlaino his membership as a gift for the Scudetto won in 1987. He played only one match for Napoli before being shot on loan at Costantino Rozzi’s Ascoli.
At the court of Costantino Rozzi
At the time, the FIGC allowed a maximum of two foreigners per club and the place of second foreigner of the Scudetto Napoli fell to a certain Careca. For a strange twist of fate, Hugo in Ascoli finds Casagrande who is Careca’s best friend. Photographed side by side, Hugo and Walter looked like the article “the”, but after some encouraging friendly matches, Maradona Junior played 13 matches, without seeing the goal. At the very least it turns out that they put you at the door. His career continued with Rayo Vallecano, in Madrid, and Rapid Vienna in Austria, before returning to play in Italy, again at Ascoli.
A life as a globetrotter, then the political interlude
A little bit of attendance between Japan and Canada, where the name Maradona still exerts a certain charm, then the return to Campania: he lived in Monte di Procida with his wife, while his three children are in the USA. The lawyer Angelo Pisani, who had assisted him in legal initiatives promoted to defend the name of his older brother, remembers him as a sportsman still in business. “He led a healthy life and remained active in the world of football,” he says. At the last municipal elections in Naples he had been offered a candidacy with the center-right civic candidate Catello Maresca, but in extremis he had ended up giving up, also due to problems related to Italian citizenship not yet acquired. The biggest dream of D10S was to have Hugo and Lalo, his two younger brothers, on the team. With Huguito he came close but, despite being physically very similar and ideally united to the end, with their feet they spoke different languages. Who knows if there are soccer fields on the other side. If so, we’re sure someone went to meet Huguito this morning. Someone with a balloon in their hand.