Collective memory and charismatic affect: The cult of Maradona among Argentinean and Neapolitan football supporters

This chapter examines the representations of the global football icon Diego Armando Maradona in popular culture, by focusing on forms of expression of football fans based in Argentina and Naples, Italy, where the pibe achieved significant sporting success between 1986 and 1990. Ever since Maradona was an active player, the talented football star has been depicted as a demi-god surrounded by a special aura. In spite of widely shared agreement that (past and present) veneration is linked to local (as in Naples) and national (as in Argentina) identity, research on Maradona has underexplored the socially constructed charismatic status owned by the “D10S”. For this reason, we discuss the theoretical idea of “charismatic affect” in close connection with “follower agency”. Maradona's charisma case thus reveals the symbolic and affective interplay among football supporters, the sporting idol, and patriotism. In conclusion, the reasoning addresses implications for the politics of memory.