‘Something uncomfortable about this’: Nantes spark huge response on Twitter after posting cartoon drawing of smiling Diego Maradona meeting fellow Argentine Emiliano Sala in heaven following his death
- A tweet from French club Nantes has sparked huge response from football fans
- The Ligue 1 side posted an illustration following the death of Diego Maradona
- It also had Emiliano Sala, who died in January 2019 in a tragic plane crash
Ligue 1 club Nantes have sparked a huge response across the football world after posting a cartoon showing Argentine legend Diego Maradona meeting former striker Emiliano Sala in heaven.
Maradona passed away on Wednesday from a heart attack aged 60 only weeks after he entered hospital for brain surgery the first week of November.
The club uploaded an illustration to their Twitter page depicting Maradona and former Nantes player Sala, who died in January 2019 in a tragic plane crash.
A tweet from Ligue 1 club Nantes has sparked a huge response across the football world
Argentine football legend Maradona passed away on Wednesday from a heart attack aged 60
Former Nantes striker Emiliano Sala tragically passed away last year in a plane crash
Sala is pictured in the clouds, representing heaven, and welcomes Maradona who greets him with open arms.
The tweet has been liked over 36,000 times and fans have flooded in with reaction as they remember the two former footballers.
One fan tweeted: ‘Two stars who will be able to party together in paradise’, whilst another said: ‘it breaks my heart’.
However, the cartoon did split opinion among the thousands who engaged with it as one user tweeted: ‘Something uncomfortable about this’.
The coffin of the late Maradona is carried by his family and friends in Buenos Aires
The hearse carrying his casket drives to the cemetery watched by hordes of mourners
Thousands of fans packed the streets around the presidential palace in Buenos Aires where Maradona lay in state on Thursday, and thousands more lined the highways in the afternoon to catch a glimpse of his hearse as it rolled past surrounded by police vehicles.
Football’s biggest names such as Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho have paid their respects to the former World Cup winner.
‘There is Maradona and there is Diego. Maradona I don’t need to speak about because the world knows and nobody will forget,’ Mourinho told BT Sport.
‘Diego is different, the people that are the big friends of him, the people that share dressing rooms with him, colleagues, these guys are privileged.
‘I can say he was a good friend of mine, but my contacts with him were by telephone and we met of course a few times.
‘He had a big, big, big, big heart. That’s the guy I miss, because his football we can find every time we miss him, if we Google we will find it. But Diego, no.’
Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho paid tribute to his friend – pictured together in 2018
Maradona was revered at Napoli after a seven-year stay from 1984-1991 where he led the side to two Serie A titles and a UEFA Cup.
Thursday night, outside the stadium which is set to be renamed the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, thousands of fans laid flowers and sang the his name – and attacker Dries Mertens, who wears the No 10 shirt made infamous by the Argentine, was similarly emotional when speaking after Napoli’s 2-0 win.
‘It was an awful moment for me, so I can only imagine how those who lived through his time at Napoli must have felt,’ Mertens told Sky Sport Italia.
‘He made such a big impact on this city and for everyone in the south of Italy. I want to be positive, and focus on my memories of a smiling man who loved football.’
All the Napoli squad wore a ‘Maradona 10’ shirt before kick-off and Maradona’s face was shown on the big screen throughout the entire match.
The whole Napoli squad came out before the match wearing ‘Maradona 10’ shirts in tribute