Former Argentinean soccer player Diego Armando Maradona expressed grief on Saturday after learning about the death of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz.
 
'This is a horrible day. I was told that the greatest man had died. No doubt, Fidel Castro left us,' he regretted from Zagreb, Croatia, where he is to cheer his country's team at the finals of the Davis Cup of tennis against the host team.
 
He also confessed that he started to cry terribly after getting the call from Buenos Aires, because he loved Fidel as if he was his second father.
 
'I lived four years in Cuba and Fidel woke me up at two in the morning to talk about politics or sports, or whatever was happening in the world, and I was willing to talk. This is the most beautiful memory I have of him', he told local media in this city.
 
Maradona added that 'when there was some event, he always called me to see if I wanted to come, if I wanted to collaborate and that cannot be easily forgotten.'
 
The famous soccer player said that 'after the Davis Cup, I will go to Havana. I want to be with Raul, Fidel's brother and president of the Cuban Councils of State and of Minister, to be with his children and with the Cuban people, who gave so much, and say goodbye to Fidel, my friend, beside them.'
 
Maradona, who was admitted several times in Cuban clinics during the decade of the 2000s, especially thanked to the help offered by Fidel Castro for him to recover from his drug addiction.
 
'He talked a lot to me about drugs. He talked to me about recovery that I was able to do it,' said Maradona, adding that 'he opened the doors to Cuba for me, when there were clinics in Argentina that close their doors to me... and Fidel opened them to me from his heart. He was permanently with me and thus, my gratitude.'
 
'The number-one revolutionary was Che, with Fidel as a leader. I come in the squad behind them,' the famous soccer star said.
 
Maradona, an activist from the revolutionary processes in Cuba, maintained a close friendship with Fidel Castro that dates from the 1980s. He even tattooed Fidel's face on his left leg.
 
The former number ten of the Argentinean soccer team recalled that in early 2015, Fidel sent him a letter in which he denied rumors about his own death, a gesture that Maradona thanked, and he felt very happy that the rumors were false.
 
'I asked him why he was killed every day. He answered that they would be true one day and I found it very funny,' he said.
 
The last time the two friends met was three years ago in Havana and Maradona recalled that 'when he came in the room, he stood up and told me, You came to say goodbye. Didn't you? No master, not at all... It was like if Del Potro (Argentinian tennis player) had launched his serve on my chest. Can you imagine Fidel Castro telling you if you had come to say goodbye?'