His promise to bring "big-time" football to India remained unfulfilled as Diego Maradona died after cheating death more than once, leaving a cricket-mad nation devastated in an appropriate reflection of his immortal status. Success-starved in football for decades now, India, perhaps, needed Maradona, needed his "Hand of God", to rise in a spectacularly popular sport that was made more popular by the Argentine's magic which will forever echo down the ages.

Many will remember the way he swayed, slithered and slalomed during his epochal World Cup triumph in 1986 in Mexico. A lot many in the 'City of Joy' will recall how a little bulky version of Maradona huffed and puffed during a charity football game here three years ago. He played against a cricketing demigod in Sourav Ganguly, who was among the first to react to his death in Buenos Aires by saying that he lost his hero. The Argentine legend, who was 57 when he came here, had managed to dribble, show glimpses of his deft left foot and even crooned Spanish songs, as he sweated it out with a bunch of school children and bid them adieu with a promise to "bring football" to India.