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Soccer legend Diego Maradonna has TWO personalities and may suffer from a type of schizophrenia, according to a new documentary maker.
Oscar-winning film director Asif Kapadia, whose previous subjects have been Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna and singer Amy Winehouse made the shock claim in a BBC interview.
London-born Kapadia said: “My thesis is that there is a Diego and a Maradonna.
“They are within the same character. With Diego Maradonna it is almost as though there are two people within him – whether it’s schizophrenic or bipolar.
“There is a really nice guy called Diego, and there is another guy – which is the ego – who is called Maradonna – and to succeed he needed both.”
His “Diego Maradonna” biopic examines the life of the Argentine striker, 58, famed for his “Hand of God” comment, over his 1986 World Cup Semi-final goal that put England out of the competition.
Speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme Kapadia. 47, said: “I met Diego Maradonna a few times. He was living in Dubai on the giant man-made palm tree. Second frond on the left was where you would find him.
“I went to his home and spent time with him. Getting to meet Diego was always going to be tricky to begin with. But once I got him on his own we had a very good conversation and he was a very charismatic interviewee.
“I eventually got to speak to him about some of the more difficult aspects of his life. His relationship with his ex-wife, children that he had that he didn’t recognise and the friendships he had with the criminal underworld, while he was living in Naples.
“These were quite tricky subjects and I have to confess that I didn’t bring them up the first time, not even the second time that I met him. The third time I broached what I thought were the easier questions and he was like ‘Never bring her up! I don’t want to talk about her! Don’t talk about him – he stole from me!’
“I ended-up saving them up for what I thought was the penultimate interview, and at that point I thought that I knew how this was going to work and I had to deal with these issues, since they were going to be in the film.
“Maradonna is a genius at subverting and moving the dialog, so I would ask a question about one of his sons, and he would give me an answer about Sepp Blatter, and I had to go ‘That’s great but can I just bring you back…’
“After one particular moment when I kept coming back to the same question he looked at me and said ‘I have got to tell you that you have got a real nerve asking me these tough questions! But for that I respect you…’
“And eventually, he did answer them and they are in the film, but nothing was ever simple with him.
“I am interested in people. I am a humanist and I want to know why do people become the people that they become.
“And the film is really about an internal struggle going on within him.
“My thesis is that there is a Diego and a Maradonna. They are within the same character. With Diego Maradonna it is almost as though there are two people within him – whether it’s schizophrenic or bipolar. There is a really nice guy called Diego, and there is another guy – which is the ego – who is called Maradonna – and to succeed he needed both.
“As a subject, he’s hard to fall in love with. I’ve seen the good side of him and I really like him. He’s funny and witty, and he’s charismatic. But there’s also an edge and there always will be, because he’s a street guy, who comes from a really tough place.
“He’s seen things and done things you really don’t want to know about, and so he’s really haqrd to get close to and if people do get close to him there is a point when he will push you away.
“That’s the complexity of this particular guy and that’s the challenge of dealing with someone who’s alive, and who’s got old, and will always bounce back but will always seek chaos.
“When things are nice and calm, he’d create a fight. He needs an argument. He needs a fight to exist almost.”