NEWS and PRESS RELEASE
Maradona pays homage to Mother Teresa, meets Jyoty Basu
07.12.2008 : “This is the second biggest reception of my life after Napoli,” said Maradona on kolkata TV channel interview, as he described his two-day visit to Football mad Kolkata which is called the football capital of india. He confirmed that his idol Cuban President Castro now is in good health.
Accompanied by his girl friend Veronica Estefani, Maradona paid homage at the tomb of Mother Teresa and spent half an hour at Mother house, the global headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity founded by the Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to work among the poor, dying and aged.
He lits a candle at Mother's tomb, participated in a prayer session with the sisters of the order, and shook hands with the orphan children to fulfil a wish he has nurtured for years. "I wanted to see what Mother Teresa has done in this city " Maradona had said on Saturday.
Missionaries of Chairty Superior General Sister Nirmala presented him a book containing the experience of some of those who have worked with the Mother
After a break The soccer legend has taken to Indira Bhavan - Salt Lake, the residence of veteran Marxist leader and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu. Maradona shook hands with the veteran leader and sat next to him and exchanged a few words.The Legend Indian Communist leder Mr. Basu welcomed the World Soccer legend by presenting a bouquet and showed him a photo album that had a few pictures showing Castro and Basu standing side by side, which was taken in 1973 when the former Cuban president paid a visit to the city of Joy - Kolkata.
Maradona told Mr. Basu with the help of an interpreter that, “Fidel Castro is my friend. Anybody who is Castro's friend is my friend. So Jyoti Basu is my friend.”
Maradona and his ten-minute magic in Mohun Bagan Club
07.12.2008 : Abhishek Bhattacharyya : As Maradona bids goodbye to Kolkata he gave his fans one last chance of catching his showstopping action in Mohun Bagan Athletic's club ground.After the Salt Lake fiasco were people hardly got a chance to see Diego.
Today in the stadium of National Club of India there dream was fulfilled.Kudos to the Club Management which is well guided by President Tutu Bose and General Secretary Anjan Mitra who made this dream possible for those fans.It was said to be a football clinic where he was said to be felicitated by Mohun Bagan and Bhawanipore Club.Baichung Bhutia,Karim Bencherifa and all the other club players were present in this auspicious occasion.
Maradona was in the Club stadium for 10 minutes and he did what a Movie Star would failed to do in 10 minutes.Maradona ran straight into the ground. After shaking hands warmly with budding Sub Junior players,he took us all down the memory lane and demonstrated his sublime ball-control skills in the middle of the field .He juggled the ball with his left foot, balanced it on his forehead, rolled it on to his shoulder and then kicked those ball towards the 14,000-strong crowd in the Bagan gallerie in all directions who felt as if they were catching the God's feet.Maradona kicked as many as 25 balls towards the fans.
As Maradona left the field he did so in style waving his hands towards the crowd,giving them flying kisses and banging his chest."10 minutes but worth every minute of that two-hour wait in the queue," said a fan while coming out the Bagan ground.
IBIEN VENIDO,DIEGO!!!!!
06.12.2008 - Abhishek Bhattacharyya & Shilarze Saha Roy : Kolkata couldn't have expected more than this. The year 2008 is perhaps one of the best chapters in the history of Indian Football in terms of performance and the visit of Oliver Kahn and Bayern Munich in May and now the visit of football legend Diego Armando Maradona will always be remembered when the titans of football came,saw and conquered our hearts and made us proud of our city which is the capital of Indian football.It was a dream come true for football fans in Kolkata who has been worshipping Maradona over 25 years now.Over the years they have chased him in their dream but the actual chase began last night when he landed in Dumdum Airport and took the shape of madness in Salt Lake Stadium today.This madness is actually love.Love for their hero who has come all the way from Argentina were football is life and football is perhaps everything.
Salt Lake Stadium was packed up by more than 1 lakh people today and Diego’s speech bears testimony to the fact that he felt like he was in his home were he can feel the same passion and madness of the fans.When Maradona entered the stadion with a car the crowd burst out in thundering ovation shouting for there hero and their hero gave them back the same love that they have offered to him. People have come from all places of the country to catch a glimpse of Diego and some were surely very happy and some dissatisfied by the fact that they hardly got any chance to catch a glimpse of their magic man.
The programme started by keeping a minute silence for the victims of terror attack in Mumbai.As Maradona entered the stadion people kept the sadness aside as they welcomed Diego by saying-Ibien Venido!!….The don of football raised his hands and waved it to the crowd and also not to forget his flying kiss. “I had no idea that football enjoyed so much fan following in this part of the world, so far from my home in South America . After end of my contract with Argentina, I would like to help Indian soccer.I want to come back again with my family to enjoy Kolkata”.Maradona was completely mobbed by the media personnel which perhaps forced the organizers to curtail the programme fixture.Maradona couldn’t move an inch as the camera personnel kept on irritating him like the buzzing sound of a honey bee.
But no one could stop Diego as he went in the middle of the field and exhibited his juggling skills in front of the players who participated in the beneficiary match that pitted Chief Minister’s XI against External Affairs Minister’s XI who won the match 1-0 courtesy an own goal from Chief Minister’s XI.
Before the start of the match and during the lemon break around 400 young players were inside the pitch wearing the jersey of Argentinian National Team showing their individual skills.Talking about individual skills Uttam Das wooed Maradona with his juggling skills.The fans were unstoppable as one of the fans just escaped security and came upto Diego to touch his feet.Diego gave him an ufforgetteble hug.
In the end Maradona was felicitated with a memento from AIFF by Subroto Dutta (Vice-President,AIFF) and not to forget the his own waxed statue which was unveiled by him.The Golden Ball was presented to him from Bidhan Nagar Municipal Corporation by Mr. Biswajiban Mazumdar.But sadly,Maradona had to leave the stadion due to constant Media pressure as the Salt Lake fixture ended with a laser show portraying his football career with the God of football being absent in this occasion.
Chief minister's XI
Nirmal Chettri, Saumik Dey, Jayanta Sen, Sunil Chettri, Parveen Kumar ( All East Bengal), Sangram Mukherjee (GK), Habibur Rahaman Mondol, Deepak Mondol, Anand Vasan ( All Mohun Bagan), Tharangachan - ( GK ), Madhab Das, Mir Farooq Haider, Sovan Chakrabarty, Goutam Thakur (All Mohammedan S.C)., Dulal Biswas (Captain), Arindam Ghosh, Snehasish Chakrabarty, Sankar Oraw ( All Chirag United), Dipendu Biswas( George Telegraph), Suraj Mondol( Railway F.C)
Coach : Shabbir Ali(Mohammedan S.C ) and Subrata Bhatacharyya(Chirag United)
Manager : Swapan Ball ( East Bengal)
External Affair's Minister XI
Subrata Paul(GK), Mehtab Hossain, Sanju Prodhan, Saheb Ali Ghorami (All East Bengal), N.S.Manju, Lalkamal Bhowmick, Lalam puia, Baichung Bhutia (Captain), Rakesh Masih ( All Mohun Bagan), Rajib Ghosh, SK.Azim, Aneet Ghosh, Basudeb Mondol ( All Mohammedan S.C), Sukhen Dey, Kingshuk Debnath, Gouranga Dutta, Dhanarajan ( All Chirag United), Biswajit Saha, Swarup Das (GK), Subho Kumar (All George Telegraph), Rakesh Prasad - GK ( Port Trust)
Coach : Karim Bencherifa (Mohun Bagan), Stanley Rozario ( East Bengal)
Manager : Debasish Dutta ( Mohun Bagan)
Tremor in Kolkata for Maradona Fever ... he is comming
03.12.2008 :Kolkata is going wild on the eve of football legend Diego Maradona’s visit in the “City of Joy”. Just 48 hours more and the city will host soccer legend Diego Maradona. Maradona is scheduled to arrive on y Saturday very early mornning in Dum Dum Airport where he will be welcomed by estimated 15,000 or more football fans.Meanwhile his two Managers Sebastian De Monte & Sebastian Heinz has arrived in the city today evening and are making necessary arrangements for Diego’s planned tour and are also checking up the whole security arrangement.
On 3rd December the Argentina Football Association's official website has released the tour programmes of Maradona to Kolkata. They said "The DT of the National Team will participate in several activities in Calcutta, including the inauguration of a soccer clinic and a charity dinner. He Will be received like a head of state.
The technical director of the National Team, Diego Armando Maradona, will travel tomorrow at 14 to India to participate in various activities related to charities. The former captain of the Argentine team, which will receive honors worthy of a head of state, will remain in Calcutta until Sunday to come.
The welcome was given the IFS (Indian Football School), and among the scheduled activities, Maradona will participate in a charity dinner where he auctioned some items used by the player during his brilliant career, will visit the convent of Mother Teresa and assist the inauguration of a soccer clinic " Buenos Aires, Dec. 3, 2008
Inaugurate ticket sales counter for MARADONA FELICITATION Ceremony at Salt Lake Stadium
30.11.2008 : Ex Indian football Captain Padmashree Chuni Goswami alongwith Santa Mitra, Bhaskar Ganguly and other eminent Football personalities will inaugurate ticket sales counter for MARADONA FELICITATION Ceremony at Salt Lake Stadium from 4.00 PM on 6th Dec 2008 and they will autograph all tickets worth Rs. 1000 and 2000.The programme will start at 12 Noon tomorrow, Venue at Netaji Indoor Stadium - Kolkata. The ticket price Rs.50, Rs. 100, Rs 200, Rs 1000. & Rs. 2000.
