Alfredo Tedeschi: Sailing with Maradona in Cuba – A Close Friendship Revealed

2024-04-11 06:48:00
Tedeschi, sailing with Maradona in Cuba

“I saw the series Coppola, the representative, and I talked regarding it with Guillote. I don’t know if it reflects what he really was for Maradona. They don’t treat Guillermo well at all. If Guillermo was not in his life, Diego would not be alive, he would have died many years before.” In this way, Alfredo Tedeschi closed the interview, who for 24 years has known the protagonist of the most popular series in Argentina, and became a very close friend of the late Diego Armando Maradona.

In February 2000, the Argentine star settled in Cuba to begin his drug treatment. He arrived in Havana with Claudia Villafañe and her representative, Guillermo Coppola. Alfredo pursued him like the good journalist he was, as a Reuters correspondent in Cuba, with the intention of getting the scoop on his arrival in the Cuban capital to begin his rehabilitation. At that moment, Dalma and Gianinna’s mother asked Tedeschi to lower the camera and he agreed, but his cameraman continued recording until Diego got angry and smashed one of their car windows.

“Maradona apologized to me for that inconvenience. I gave him an antenna so he might watch the soccer games and, from that day on, he started a friendship that never ended,” says Tedeschi from the Philippines, where he is filming a reality show.

Maradona’s arrival in La Pradera generated a true Cuban revolution. Every time he left or entered his chalet, he passed seven or eight journalists who were stationed at the entrance to record his presence. But upon generating a close friendship with Tedeschi, one day Diego stood up in front of the rest of the journalists and clarified: “I am a friend of Alfredo and if I have something to say, I am going to tell him and the agency where he works.” , reveals the former producer of Susana Giménez.

As a result of that friendship they generated, Diego gave Tesdeschi a jet ski to navigate the waters of the island. In turn, the journalist contacted him to send him a shipment of supplies that were difficult to obtain in Cuba for the Maradona family. “I had good contacts in Miami, United States, and the next day I sent for a shipment with everything I needed: sodium-free salt, special noodles and other things,” he recalls.

“Diego was a genius, a being from the stratosphere, a great friend. “He was an extraordinary boy with a lot of problems,” he is honest in dialogue with Infobae.

– What is it regarding your life, Alfredo?

– My life is a shrink. We are doing a program in the Philippines. I have worked for a Belgian company for ten years. We do the same program every year with the same clients. This season we put together the program for Hungary and it is called Asia Express.

– Did you leave Argentina a long time ago?

– I live in Argentina, but I come and go. I was outside my country for 15 years working for the Reuters network in Cuba. He was the correspondent in that country.

– Was it in Cuba where you met Diego Armando Maradona?

– Yes, I met him in 1995 when he came to see Fidel Castro and Ricardo Darin was there. There they introduced us. At that time, we were not friends. The friendship arose later, when he returned in 2000, when he came to be admitted.

Maradona and Tedeschi, with Fidel Castro

-What do you remember regarding that reunion with Pelusa when he went to be admitted to Havana?

– We started to follow it with the agency’s photographer. I remember that we followed him everywhere and he got very angry with the cameraman because he didn’t stop recording and taking photos of him. So he approached the car and smashed my car window. He was excited to be followed wherever he went. But it so happened that my wife went to the same gym as Claudia (Villafañe), who had arrived a few days before and she was in need of products: sodium-free salt, whole wheat noodles, and since I had the contacts in Cuba to bring them from Miami, In less than 24 hours we gave him a hand, and Claudia later invited me to come to her house to meet Diego.

– Was that when the friendship began?

– Yes. Maradona apologized to me for that inconvenience and started a friendship that never ended. That day when Claudia made me enter her house was very funny. All of us journalists were stationed at the door of her house waiting for Diego to pass by. When he arrived, he stopped the car and told me, “Hey, I’ll come to my house in five minutes.” So, they let me in and it was a very relaxed talk. I was with my children and it was all very enjoyable. From there, we made a great friendship.

– Is it true that your house was the meeting place for Diego, his friends and visitors?

– I lived four blocks from his chalet in La Pradera. In addition, I had a large antenna with a decoder to watch Channel 13 live and I gave it to him so he might watch the soccer games. I installed it for him and gave him a computer monitor so he might use it. But he liked to come to my house to watch the games, because I made the barbecues for him. Everything happened in my house. Diego came with his friends and visitors. The Córdoba singer Rodrigo was there, the guys from Defensores de Almagro, the deputies and senators who visited him came to my house; everyone came.

– Did Fidel Castro also go to your house?

– No, Fidel was going to Maradona’s house. Otherwise we were going to visit him at the Palace of the Revolution. The two met when Castro invited him to the palace for the first time. Then, Fidel would drop by Maradona’s house at 2 AM to chat for a while. One day when Diego needed something, he called me to go in the morning to visit the Commander, but I told him “Diego, he won’t be able to help you because he has a full agenda.” I received Fidel’s agenda every day. But Maradona answered me “let’s go anyway because I need to see him.” We went with Guillermo Coppola and other people. We knocked on the door and entered. We spent three hours meeting with the commander; and that was when we took the photo in which I am with Fidel and Diego.

– How were those talks with Fidel?

– They were spectacular moments. Beyond the ideological part of him, he was a very pleasant guy, he chatted with everyone, told stories and liked football. At one point, Fidel told Maradona “I want to give you a penalty.” Maradona responded “there are no 13 steps here.” But Fidel told him that there were 13 steps in the main hall of the palace and Diego kicked a penalty that Fidel, imagine, did not save or shoot.

-How might Maradona be defined as a friend?

– For me he was very pleasant, an incredible human being. With my children he was adorable. He played ball with them, he threw himself on the floor with water guns, they were dying of laughter. He was an extraordinary boy with a lot of problems. But a fucking human being. I remember that he had millions of gestures with me in Cuba.

– What is the first one that comes to mind?

– First, he told the rest of the press: “I am a friend of Alfredo and if I have something to say, I am going to tell him and the agency where Alfredo works.” He did not attend to another journalist. I was very ashamed. But he was the only guy who had all of Diego’s stories. It was a spectacular moment, even for my career. Imagine that it was wonderful for the agency to have the exclusives of Maradona, the most popular man in the world.

– What is the story that you remember most that he told you?

– The Ferrari in Naples. She told Guillote “this doesn’t have a radio (laughs).” He was driving a Ferrari and noticed that he didn’t have a radio to listen to music. Is incredible.

– Diego was very generous and liked to give gifts. Did he give you any gifts that you remember?

– Yes, he was very generous and liked to go sailing with me. I had my own boat and Diego gave me a 0 km jet ski, brought from Canada. He drove it with my children every day; They came and went. I had bought a kayak, a banana, a boat and Diego gave me a jet ski. They wallowed in the water and walked back and forth.

-What was your relationship with Coppola like?

– Excellent. Guillote is the straightest guy I ever met in my life. A spectacular human being. People think that he is a blackmailer, a drug addict and nothing to do with anything. Guillote is the best. For my children he was Uncle Guille. And it still is, because we spoke a week ago.

– For Diego, what was Guillermo in his life?

– His dad, his mom and his left hand. The thing is that Diego wanted to stay in Cuba and Guillote didn’t like it one bit. In the end, Guillermo came and went. One of the boys who guarded Maradona stayed, I don’t remember if it was Carlitos or Gustavo. Sometimes Gabriel came, too. Cuba is a very difficult country. There is no shopping, nor anywhere to go to have a good coffee or wine. It’s complicated in that sense.

-Was it good for Diego to settle in Cuba to quit drugs?

– I do not think so. Even at some point they started bringing him drugs and he was no longer the same. I spoke with former vice president Carlos Laje and told him to his face “if you don’t take care of this boy, Maradona is going to die here (Cuba) and you are going to have a problem.”

– Did you go to Cuba to be treated for drugs and were they given to you to consume?

– Yes, it was like that. I’m not going to tell you who, but they brought him the drugs. I knew everything inside and I knew who was taking her. The second time I saw him enter Diego’s house, I figured out who he was.

– Was Diego accompanied by his family?

– No. Claudia, and the girls, had already left, and she came and went from time to time. They had grown tired of life in Cuba, since the only place they might eat Milanese was at my house (laughs).

– Did Fidel Castro do anything to help Diego quit drugs?

– I think so within what I might. Luckily, she got it out of her before anything happened to her in Cuba. She was there for four years. I was there for the first three, and then I left. Diego asked me in ten different ways to stay, but I mightn’t do it. He had ended my relationship with the company, because they had me for 12 years, they promised me a change of destination and it never came. When they gave it to me, they told me I was going to Africa and I said no. And I returned to Buenos Aires.

Diego and Alfredo, following a dive

– What was your last image of Diego?

– I saw him once more when I was producing Susana Giménez’s program in Buenos Aires with Luis Chela. That was in 2005. That’s when we met once more. But the core of people around him were no longer the same.

– What was it like the day you almost stopped a Bayer Munich match?

– We went to the Bayern Munich stadium on the day of Lothar Matthäus’ farewell together with Diego and Guillote. We met his family who had arrived from Buenos Aires. I was next to the cameraman and they didn’t want to let us pass. Maradona realized this and told the security guard in Spanish: “If they don’t come in, I’ll leave and I won’t play.” He was regarding to start the game.

– And what happened?

-They let us pass. Maradona opened the doors of heaven if he wanted, everything he generated was impressive. At night, we went to Lottar’s farewell party. We stayed four days in Munich and went out to eat with friends of Maradona, to walk and buy things and we returned.

– What is your last memory of Diego?

– The day I saw him enter the Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata field as a coach. It’s the last image I have in my head. Then, I went to the wake.

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