It was a dream come true. I’d emptied my savings tin, My broad smile stretched From Bognor to Berlin
I would be the proud owner Of a Diego Maradona boot, Now the barrel-chested ones, Latest fanclub recruit
Sprinting down Whitechapel Road, I dragged along me Mam – Dropping a shopping bag en route, Shattering a jar of jam
“You wear them, you’ll play like him,” The shop assistant said. I believed every single word. My beaming smile spread.
A walking Ambassador I became, I put those boots to use On grass, tarmac, concrete Each time I got set loose.
Wear them on the old sandpitch In the thick of the Berner Estate: Not ideal for that surface, But that was open to debate.
Even wore them to school On an odd day or three. “Get them off right now!” Hawkeyed Margaret would scream.
Wore them into the ground, Even when they were a goner. Yes, the one and only Puma Maradona.
Goodbye to you Armando, A Druid, a one off edition. Eternal Gracias Dieguito – Football’s flawed magician.
25 11 20 number7
© emdad rahman
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