Imagine waking up one day as Carlos Bilardo.The 83-year-old man of deteriorated health can hardly move from his bed, spending hours religiously staring at a TV and countless football games. He suffers from a – wait for a second to check our notes – Hakim-Adams syndrome, a rare neurodegenerative disease. Day by day, things are getting worse, bruising the face of the famous tactician with the scarfs of senility.El Narigon – The Big Nosed One – is not a mere shadow of the once prodigious boss, who led Argentina to a back-to-back World Cup finals, reaching the glory in 1986 thanks to his like-son Diego Armando Maradona.Bilardo and Maradona celebrate the 1986 WC victory (©Archivo El Grafico/Getty Images)He treated Diego like his own flesh and blood, albeit they were grabbing each other throats from time to time whilst establishing a lifelong bond. They worked together also at Boca Juniors and Sevilla, with Bilardo mostly picking Maradona up from his lows and providing him with a chance for redemption he mainly wasted on cocaine-backed parties and on-the-pitch incidents.And after all these years, if you ask Don Carlos, their relationship is as alive as it gets, despite Diego not calling him since November 2020.And the weird thing is, from Bilardo’s point of view, there’s no sign of Maradona whatsoever on TV either.The two of them in 2010 (© El Grafico/Getty Images)What Bilardo doesn’t know is that his wicked son will never call him nor visit him ever again. Moreover, Carlos is probably the only living creature that thinks Maradona is still alive.Maradona doctors face premeditated murder charge over star’s deathIn a motion-picture-scenario-worth life story, Bilardo’s family decided not to tell him about the sudden death of his beloved Diego. Bearing in mind his crumbling health, they thought it could be devasted for Bilardo to find out the saddest news of all.(2.25) GODOY CRUZ (3.25) NEWELL’S (3.30)That’s why the entire family made sure they change the TV channel as soon as any news of Maradona emerge on the screen. Thankfully for them, Bilardo is not using a phone or internet too, which prevents him from learning about his hero’s passing away.But, according to Argentine media, the time has come.Messi dedicates Copa America title to family, country and MaradonaThis excruciating, larger-than-life ‘hide and seek’ game has reached its end, with a painful outcome to be delivered by Bilardo’s pupils and Diego’s former teammates. Oscar Ruggeri and Jorge Burruchaga – the members of that 1986 golden generation – will sit with Bilardo, and, hopefully, the heart of the old man won’t crumble once he hears of Diego’s death.”These days, we are going to see if we can gather the boys, Ruggeri, Burru to tell him. Diego was the male child Carlos did not have. They had a thousand fights like you can have with your son. But they were always together,” said Jorge Bilardo, Carlo’s brother, to local Radio Colonia.##EDITORS_CHOICE##And he added:”Carlos doesn’t tell you anything when he watches the games. You tell him ‘this player can’t play’ or ‘how bad the team is doing’, and he’s not going to comment on anything. He watches the 90 minutes of the game in silence. Before, Carlos would call you at three in the morning and tell you about a player, and at one point, you would tell him that it was already dawn, and he would say, ‘Naah, you spend all day sleeping’ hahaha.”Bilardo’s brother also reveals that the news of Diego’s death is not the only dreadful information he’ll have to face in the upcoming days – they’ve kept away from him that another 1986 WC player Jose Luis ‘Tata’ Brown, has passed away too.Is there anything more sacred than the protection of the one you love? Even from the truth that could hurt him more than anything else in the world.Is there a good moment for it? Like ever?We genuinely hope Bilardo and his boys will give us the answers to these vital questions that go far beyond football, sport or any prosaic concern.By: Bojan Babic
