Maradona fans try to rush building to see coffin

(26 Nov 2020) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4299185

Fans of Diego Maradona gathered in central Buenos Aires on Thursday to pay their last respects to their football hero, who died the previous day at age 60.
Footage showed some mourners breaking through crowd control barriers in their eagerness to file past Maradona's coffin inside the presidential palace.
Some also clashed with riot police.
The Argentine soccer great who scored the "Hand of God" goal in 1986 and led his country to that year's World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity died of a heart attack according to his spokesman.
His death came two weeks after he was released from a hospital in Buenos Aires following brain surgery.
The office of Argentina's president decreed three days of national mourning, and the Argentine soccer association expressed its sorrow on Twitter.
One of the most famous moments in the history of the sport, the "Hand of God" goal, came when the diminutive Maradona punched the ball into England's net during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.
England said the ball went in off of Maradona's hand, not his head. Maradona himself gave conflicting accounts of what had happened over the years, at one point attributing the goal to divine intervention, to "the hand of God."
Ahead of his 60th birthday in October, Maradona told France Football magazine that it was his dream to "score another goal against the English, this time with the right hand."
Maradona also captivated fans around the world over a two-decade career with a bewitching style of play that was all his own.
Although his reputation was tarnished by his addictions and an ill-fated spell in charge of the national team, he remained idolized in soccer-mad Argentina as the "Pibe de Oro" or "Golden Boy."

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