In the aftermath of Diego Maradona’s death, Abruzzo warmly recalls its connection with one of the greatest football players of all time.

In September 1984, during the Coppa Italia Championship, Maradona came to Abruzzo with the Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, a top Italian professional football club based in Naples, to play at the stadium in Pescara. He scored a goal in front of the 25,000 spectators. “It wasn’t just any goal. It was Maradona’s first Italian goal for an Italian football team,” said Gabriele Bankowski, the vice-president of the Pescara football club in an interview with Il Messaggero newspaper. At the end of the game, the Argentinian star gave his jersey to Gianluca Pacchiarotti, the Pescara goalkeeper. The Napoli team hammered Pescara that day with the final score 3-0. The jersey would cost a fortune now but Pacchiarotti gave it another footballer at a match some time later. Watch the famous goal scored by Maradona in Pescara in the video below:

30 years ago, when Maradona played for Naples, he enjoyed skiing in Roccaraso. Only a few days ago, the shooting of a new film dedicated to Maradona, “La mano de Dios”, was finished in the most picturesque areas of the skiing resort. The film will be soon aired on Netflix, reports the Italian news agency ANSA.

For his wedding in 1989, the Argentinian footballer ordered confetti sugared almonds from the Pelino factory in Sulmona. Three thousand flowers were made with confetti in blue and white, the colours of the Neapolitan and Argentinian football clubs. There is a photo of Maradona with a thank you note displayed in the Pelino museum.

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