“Maradona, because of his charisma, has left a great mark”

Javier Castañeda faced Maradona six times during his career, all of them when the Argentine star played for Barcelona. After one of those meetings, Maradona said of him that he had been the center-back who had scored the most cleanly for him. Castañeda remembers ‘El pelusa’ as a close guy and regrets that one of the best soccer players in history left so young.

Question. How many times was Maradona measured?

Reply. Six times, all of them when he was at Barcelona. He was there for two seasons and we crossed paths in the four league games and two in the Cup, which Barça played as our rival.

What did it mean for a central defender to have to mark a player at the level of the Argentine?

In principle a great responsibility because he was a crack. Not only was it that you measured Barcelona, ​​but you also had to score Maradona.

Maradona even said of you that you were the defender who had scored the cleanest …

I think that throughout my entire sporting career I have been a tough player, but I was never a kicker. I attached my characteristics to the rival I was facing and I have fought them all sportingly.

Did Maradona come to comment something about his marking personally?

I remember that on one occasion, before starting the game, he asked me to see how many kicks I was going to give him that day, but I told him that that day it was not time to kick him. When the game ended I was talking to him and we took some pictures and I congratulated him and told him that it was a pride for me to meet him and he told me that he was very grateful because my marking had been very clean.

By remembering those words from afar in time, are they given more value?

When you mark a player with these characteristics or do something in life in a situation in which you have nothing to lose and much to gain, if things go wrong, nothing happens because whoever is in front of you is a phenomenon and if you do well the repercussion it has is very great. The proof is that 38 years have passed this, it was in 1982, and we are talking about it. Is very pretty.

Remember Maradona as a close person

Yes. The few times I was lucky enough to talk to him were the times we faced each other, but the treatment was very pleasant. We always talked about how life was going and we wished each other luck and that the best one won.

Were you the best footballer in history?

Yes. For me, the three best players have been Pele, who I saw when I was very young, then Cruyff and then Maradona.

Do you have any of Maradona specially etched in your memory?

He made goals out of the ordinary. For me he was a player who had everything; technique, talent, winning spirit, charisma, attitude. There are players who are very good, and who are considered the best in the world, but they do not leave a mark, they do not convey that residue of leader that he transmitted. Look with his death the one that has been mounted in Argentina. They are people who pass and leave their mark, for being who they are they become myths. He had a brutal charisma, like Pelé and Cruyff.

Unfortunately Maradona was in the news many times for issues outside of football, do you think the character could do it?

Yes. In my opinion, he surrounded himself with people who did not do him good. Regardless of his character or his way of being, if he had surrounded himself with people who would have advised him in another way, his life would have been different.

He himself said that with Diego he would go to the end of the world but with Maradona not even around the corner …

Statements that he himself made showed that he knew that he had made many mistakes. I'm not the one to judge anyone, but he made mistakes and a sad outcome has come because he was very young.

What does the death of Maradona mean for the football world?

It is a very strong blow because he was someone who transmitted emotions, sensations, who contributed a lot in statements, in ways of acting, of thinking. The pity is that he left when he was 60 years old, too young.