It's Official: Maradona is God

As we've pointed out more than once, Argetina has a, er, slight obsession with soccer star / national-analogy / bloated-cokehead / recovery-tale / TV-star Diego Armando Maradona. With two recent pieces of Maradonia, however, he may have been promoted from obsession to diety. Thursday saw the opening of Carlos Sorín's new movie, El Camino de San Diego (yes, The Path of St. Diego), a tale of a humble boy from Missiones province who finds a large root that resembles Maradona's face and decides to get to Buenos Aires--by foot if necessary--in order to deliver it to his idol, who is in a hospital recovering from heart problems.

Before that, however, I received an email press release announcing that four Maradona fanatics from Mar del Plata were creating and consecrating a monument to St. Diego. Started August 10 and sculpted by a professor of visual arts named Elizabeth Eichhorn, the monument (above) will stand 2.20 meters tall; this "gift of the people" will be installed wherever Maradona wants it (if he offers an opinion). As the creators say on their website, "Effort bears fruit--and more, when one makes an effort for love."

And of coures, the Iglesia Maradoniana--the Church of Maradona--has existed for eight years. It dates the beginning of time to October 30, 1960--Maradona's day of birth.