LONDON: Amid news of the death of Argentinian football superstar Diego Maradona on Wednesday, a Lebanese television clip that claimed he was originally from Lebanon has resurfaced on social media.
The Future Television show, Sire w Infatahit, hosted by award-winning journalist Zaven Kouyoumdjian, was the first to reveal the claim that Maradona originally hailed from the town of Aabdine in north Lebanon.
“There are people who left Aabdine to go to Argentina. However, they were only able to travel on ships because there were not many,” a man from Aabdine said in a report from the show.
“So they left on board the Titanic, which later sank but, one of them survived. One of their relatives is the great football legend, Maradona.
“Even after he became an international superstar, they came back to the village asking about their relatives in order for him to meet them.”
The football legend died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 60 after battling health issues and undergoing emergency surgery for a subdural haematoma several weeks ago.
