01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

2024 COPA AMÉRICA - USA

JULY 14, 2024

Honey, we're on our way.

I'll tell you once we're there,

but I think there may be some traffic.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the final is about to begin!

This will be the last time

Ángel Di María plays for Argentina.

-What? Is that dad?

-Show her.

Let's see. Is that your dad?

That's so sweet!

-Where'd you get that?

-Look, his head is huge.

-He's just a head!

-Pretty much.

That's so cute!

Will it bring us luck today?

Oh my God, if it brings us luck,

we'll carry it forever.

We're about to have

one electric soccer game.

Well done. Thank you.

The daughters

of Ángel Di María, Mía and Pía,

are delivering the ball for the game.

You can see the excitement

on their father's face.

What a moment.

Argentina will make another

substitution. Otamendi is coming in.

Ladies and gentlemen,

one of the greatest Argentine players

of all time is leaving the field.

Ángel Di María.

Our guardian angel.

The angel in our hearts.

Di María, you're something else,

and you'll be sorely missed.

Thank you for everything.

On behalf of all Argentines, thank you.

I told the guy last night that

I dreamed about us reaching the final.

I dreamed I'd retire after this victory.

I'm forever grateful

to this generation of soccer players.

It gave me everything.

It helped me seize this dream

and this is how I retire.

What more could I ask for?

His lifelong journey

had a cinematic finale.

It's like a film, and

I don't think he could've ever expected

for things to wrap up this way.

Let's be honest. He deserves it.

We're going back home.

-Good. How are you?

-Okay, how's it going?

DI MARÍA - CARDOSO FAMILY

Breaking Down the Wall,

Di María interview. Take one.

Today, the soccer world

says that you're in

the top four of

the Argentina national team.

Kempes, Maradona, Messi and you.

But that recognition came late.

Have you been undervalued

through your entire career?

I don't know, I

I'm I'm not the one

who should answer that.

I think that's for others to say.

I'm convinced that Di María

isn't fit for the national team.

Di María's done. History.

Di María chokes

when the going gets tough.

Don't pick Di Maria

as a starter anymore, please don't!

Di María's time is over,

gentlemen. No more.

Every time

we lost or tied a game,

I found myself needing sleeping pills

to get a good night's sleep.

I'm gonna get on my knees here, right now.

THE DI MARÍA FRAUD

As a fan of the national team,

I beg you, Scaloni,

stop having Di María start, please.

That guy talks so much sh*t.

He wanted him off the national team.

After so many injuries,

and after all the other

sh*t I had go through,

and sh*t I had to put up with

Even if he finds a wall or whatever's in

his way, he needs to keep going forward.

Di María's time is over.

He chokes. I'm convinced

Di María isn't fit for the national team.

I wanted nothing more than to win

something with the national team.

Throughout most his career,

he wasn't recognized as much as he is now,

and it's well-deserved

considering all he's done.

Di María has made soccer history.

Di María!

He was a big hit in Rosario,

and so he got transferred to Benfica.

When I see him, I see a superstar.

Become a winner in Europe.

He's won everything there is in soccer.

One-on-one, he's one of the best.

One of the best players there is.

If he feels inspired,

he can take anybody to school.

Bottom line, he's willing to k*ll

for that crest on his jersey.

When it comes to the critical games,

Ángel is always a game-changer.

We call him the man

of the important goals.

Anybody who has a true love for the game,

football gives it back to them.

Di Maria shoots! Goal!

He's one of the greatest names ever

in Argentine football.

Just like Menotti said

he's up there.

He's one of the most important players

in the history of Argentine soccer.

I had the feeling that

his career has been beautiful.

But now, it's not beautiful, now it's

a dream of a career that became reality.

You see?

The wall had to break eventually

and finally it broke.

I told you it would break!

ÁNGEL DE MARÍA

BREAKING DOWN THE WALL

Being in Rosario,

it's a place where

I forget about everything,

and focus only on my family and friends.

I count down the months

until I can go back there,

enjoy the holidays, go on vacation.

That's where I feel the best

and the most comfortable.

Everyone has their favorite place to be,

and for me, that's my hometown.

PERDRIEL STREE

That street means everything to me.

I was born and raised there,

and that's where I learned all my values.

To give it my all.

I learned how to fight my way up.

I I think that's why I got it tattooed,

because it's that important to me.

Being born there was the best thing

that could've happened to me.

It was the most beautiful

thing to happen in my life.

My mom was the one who always

dreamed and believed I could make it.

Ángel was a hyperactive kid.

He just wouldn't stay still.

No, no, not ever.

MOTHER

He wouldn't stay put, it didn't matter

where you tried to set him down.

I even had to feed him

while we were walking.

No, he never stayed still.

He was mischievous.

He used to ruin the pots, plants.

He was always kicking the ball

or kicking something.

FATHER

Whatever he could get his hands on.

When his sister Vanesa

was born, he wouldn't leave her alone.

He wasn't a bad kid.

He was good, but he was restless,

and so he always had his hands on her.

He never stayed in one place.

You'd see him go into the backyard,

and he wouldn't be there

next time you looked.

He'd have climbed the wall,

and be off kicking the ball somewhere.

I grew up a target for his shots.

He always had a ball with him,

outside or inside the house.

When Ángel was

about four or five years old,

he was still so mischievous,

that it was getting hard

to put up with him.

So, Diana took him to a doctor,

and he said that

he needed to be playing a sport.

Soccer was the only thing we liked.

We didn't like anything else.

So she took him

to the soccer club near us, the Torito.

AUGUST 17, 1968

He began playing there when

he was five years old.

At first all he would do was

take dirt and throw it in the air.

I saw that and I just

I just went back home.

Later, I saw one of the coaches,

and he'd tell me about

the amazing goals my son was scoring.

I couldn't believe it.

That's where it all began,

but at that age, I really

wasn't taking it seriously at all.

I was just there to enjoy myself

and have fun,

and, yeah, in the end, that helped me

later later on.

By the time I was eight or nine years old,

I was playing a lot of soccer

with my friends in the neighborhood.

"Barbecue," take one. Action.

Again?

I hope it's as good

as Miguel's charcoal.

It was always spot on.

-No, Miguel's was always spot on.

-It always worked.

We got two more.

Cheers, guys.

Tell that to Mr. Charcoal!

"Di María Charcoal."

-Hey, man. All good?

-Hey, man.

-All good?

-Yeah.

Ángel and I have

known each other all our lives.

He always loved playing soccer,

and we've always loved it too.

We all enjoy soccer.

Ángel, my brother Alexis,

and I all grew up together.

We lived next door to Ángel's house.

FRIEND

The first place he lived.

Ángel would come home from soccer practice

and he still wanted to play.

He brought the ball and said we should

play the kids across the street,

or soccer with some extra rules.

He always had a ball.

He was so skinny.

He was even skinnier than he is now.

And

he just outplayed us,

you almost wanted to kick him.

He got into Rosario Central because of a

game one day between them and El Torito.

This man jumped the fence,

and came over to where

the parents were that day.

I was with Diana, and the other parents

were telling me to go talk to this guy.

They said that he wanted to sign up Ángel.

I was like, "He's only six years old,"

I told them.

Why would they want a six-year-old?

He was just starting out.

And just then, Ángel scored

a goal against Rosario Central.

A CELEBRATORY EVENING FOR EL TORITO

I told him to go talk to the club.

And it led to the now-famous transfer

where the El Torito club

would receive 26 soccer ba*ls

in exchange for Ángel.

DI MARÍA THE STORY OF

THE KID WORTH 26 SOCCER ba*ls

THAT'S THE TRANSFER FEE HIS CLUB

SET FOR HIM TO JOIN ROSARIO CENTRAL

Their interest felt strange,

because in our view,

he was still very young.

They weren't even playing for points.

But they saw something

in the way he played.

Even though he was so skinny.

The uniforms were too big for him,

so when ran up and down the field,

his jersey would hang loose.

Long pass.

There goes Di María.

So, it was very nice.

It was nice to watch him grow up there.

Di María shoots at the goal!

And he scores for Rosario Central!

Goal by player number ten!

Di María scores the equalizer!

-What's your full name?

-Ángel Fabián Di María.

-Who do you root for? Nice game.

-Rosario Central.

-Who are you dedicating it to?

-To my family and my grandparents.

For me, my parents made many sacrifices.

Not only them, but my sisters too.

Because my sisters,

they gave up so many things in order to go

places with my parents and with me.

Uh, there were things that they wanted,

and needed,

but that my parents didn't get them

so they could buy me a new pair of cleats.

Everybody says,

"What a huge sacrifice you made."

And yes, I suppose we did.

But we still had to make ends meet,

and maybe that meant not giving our girls

what we were giving Ángel at the time.

But not a sacrifice,

I truly enjoyed my son.

I remember that she used to

take Ángel and Vanesa,

carrying them both at the same time.

From Rosario all the way

to the sports village.

Which is in Granadero Baigorria.

That's about a mile away.

It was a Graziella,

one of those old English bikes.

Big, heavy, sturdy things

with a basket on the front.

And my husband reinforced the supports

and cut some of the wires inside,

so my girl could sit in it.

In the basket with her legs hanging out.

We used to leave around 1:30

or two o'clock in the afternoon,

and we had to cross several neighborhoods

to get to the sports village.

It was a long journey,

but I was happy to do it.

My mom It's hard to talk about her.

My mom

Uh

There are

There are no words to

to describe my mom.

She's She's everything good.

Everything.

She did everything for me.

She made a lot of sacrifices,

including riding us on that old bike.

We had to cross through some pretty rough

neighborhoods for 30, 40 minutes.

It wasn't easy.

But she didn't care.

She just wanted me to get to practice.

She had this dream,

and whenever we walked by

Rosario Central's stadium,

she'd say to me

that I'd be playing there someday.

That someday

I'd fulfill my dream and hers too.

A pass to Di María

at the edge of the box, he shoots!

Whoa!

Rosario Central scores!

Ángel Di María has

turned the score around!

Rosario Central has taken the lead!

Ángel's generation, the 1988 class,

was full of talented kids.

They all played very, very well.

Here comes the skinny kid.

They can't stop him!

There are always coaches

who come and go, and they last a year.

Or less.

And they make a mess.

Di María has the ball.

One of these coaches

wanted to clean house.

So he looked at all the players,

and when he got to Ángel

First he looked at me,

and then he told him,

"You're tall but you don't score headers."

"You're too skinny,

and you just get tackled all the time."

And then he told me to take him.

Take him to another club.

"I'm not doing that," I said.

He said he wouldn't play, but oh well.

He's going to train there.

Those were hard times for me.

For a while I even wanted to stop playing.

I was just so young,

and I was only playing for for fun.

I loved playing soccer.

And when a coach tells you those things,

it's really discouraging.

So, that was really hard for me.

I told him not to worry,

I said, "This coach will be gone."

"He'll leave."

"And you'll still be playing

for Rosario Central."

I swear by my daughters that

back then

I never thought I'd really make it.

But I do love playing the game,

and I still play it the same way I used

to play it as a kid, with my friends.

Just trying to enjoy myself.

And I think that's what brought me

to where I am now.

When he was 16 or so,

I remember I told Ángel,

"If you're not playing in the top division

by the time you're 17,

then you should forget about it."

You could say he gave me an ultimatum.

After that it was work or finish school,

so that gave me

just one more year to play soccer.

There was no telling what would happen.

I was still very young.

Usually when you debut as a player,

you debut when you're 20, or 21, or 22.

And yeah, that year,

we had a game at Rosario Central Stadium,

and Don Ángel Tulio Zof

was watching the game.

And we won three to two,

and I scored all three goals.

He congratulated me

for my performance in that game.

DON ÁNGEL

FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS

For us, for the fans of Rosario Central,

Don Ángel is

He's a true icon.

While he was there,

he always prioritized the players.

I think he was impressed with the way

Ángel took on opposing players,

and his dribbling,

and Ángel's diagonal shots were amazing.

That was one of the main things

that drove Don Ángel's decision

to bring him to the top division.

Night falls in Avellaneda

as Independiente faces Rosario Central

to wrap up the top division's tournament.

Rosario Central features

many young players,

with the left-footed

Ángel Di Maria as a highlight.

In my case,

I saw that game at a cybercafé,

I had to watch it online.

We didn't have the money

to watch that game in Buenos Aires.

Miguel was working,

and one of my daughters

was having her confirmation.

I had my confirmation

at the El Buen Samaritano school,

and that night Ángel

was playing in his debut.

And while we were there, my dad

was listening to the game on the radio.

I was paying more attention

to Ángel's game than to the confirmation.

He had some of us

warm up in the second half.

When he called me, I put on

my jersey and approached him,

and what he said to me was,

"Do what you used to do back in Rosario."

"Just play the same way. Enjoy. Have fun."

"Just do what you love to do."

"Don't think about anything else."

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to this celebration.

Today's a day of joy and happiness

for these children.

Rosario Central

is making a substitution.

Emiliano Vecchio is coming off the field,

and coming on will be number 37,

Ángel Di María.

This marks Ángel Di María's debut,

as directed by Don Ángel.

The game against

Independiente is tied one-to-one.

The moment they said Ángel

was on the field, oh God

It was beyond exciting, I felt joy.

I couldn't believe it.

Everybody in the neighborhood was happy.

They were all happy

that Ángel was going in.

They were all in the street,

listening to the game on the radio.

I was screaming out in the hall.

I was ecstatic. I was so happy.

Di María controls the pass.

He dribbles, leaving two players behind.

Pusineri's chasing him down.

He tackles. That's a foul.

We knew whether he played

the whole match, or ten minutes,

or just two minutes,

he's still going to try to win.

He k*lled it. Luckily, he played well.

So by 18,

he was a part of Rosario Central.

He had the chance and he seized it.

Everything went right for him that year.

Di María.

Here comes Ángel This kid's unstoppable.

He took off as if he had been playing

in the division for ten years.

Nothing held back.

I did what he told me,

and was lucky enough to get the cross off.

I think it was, uh, Rivanola

who headed it back across the goal,

and Marco Rubén scored with a header.

Here comes Di María,

making his debut here.

He crosses into the box.

Rivanola controls it,

Rubén with the header!

Goal!

It was

an unforgettable day for me.

The only part I didn't like that

much was that after the game,

people wanted my jersey.

Look at that. Look at that.

This is where Ángel was born.

-The legend!

-The legend.

We were all at his house.

They were still living

at the Perdriel Street house then.

And yeah, he said we should do a raffle

and see what everybody gets.

I wanted the jersey.

It was the prettiest thing.

And Diana said,

"Ángel, that one was mine!"

He said, "Mom, I'll have a lot of those,

I'll give you one later."

But this one's 37.

All my friends would've liked to have

made a career in soccer as well,

fulfilling their own dreams.

So, being able to give him my jersey

was something quite special for me too.

And then there's this,

the neighborhood jersey.

Help him out.

ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP

It's a great jersey.

We'd won three tournaments,

that's why it's got the three stars.

-That's us.

-We're humble.

Humble? We're not humble!

To this day,

I bring each one of them a jersey

when I come back home for Christmas

because I know that

that they appreciate them,

that they collect them,

and it means a lot to them.

Every time we get together,

it feels like going back in time.

With them, it feels like I'm a kid again,

laughing just the way I used to,

finding joy in the same things.

ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP

Yeah,

the "Eternal Friendship" tattoo

Well, I had this idea that I wanted to get

a tattoo together with all my friends.

As soon as I sent the message,

everyone said yes,

and it really meant a lot to me.

And, yeah,

that's why we all got the tattoo,

and it meant the world to me.

Rosario Central is a great club

full of promising players.

There's this kid, Ángel Di María,

who's a great player.

I was just telling him that he'll k*ll it

if he plays like his father.

His father had a problem.

He played well,

but he didn't pass the ball.

He always wanted the ball for himself,

and he didn't like training that much.

But when he had the ball, he played well.

I wake up thinking about soccer.

I go to sleep thinking about soccer.

Uh, it meant everything to me.

I wasn't lucky enough to make it,

but thank God Ángel did.

Nice, Miguel!

The two of them

are both crazy about soccer.

That's why my son is like that.

His dad is like that,

and I'm the same, I love it.

When Dad was my age, he was great.

He was a good player.

He went with a friend to Buenos Aires,

to River, to try out, and he got in.

I was on my own at that time.

My mom worked as a house cleaner,

and there wasn't enough money

to pay for my expenses

in Buenos Aires anymore.

So, I went back home,

and another guy took my place.

Then when he came back

he was playing soccer with some friends

and he stepped into a pothole,

and he broke his knee.

That was the end of him

playing professional soccer.

If he hadn't broken his knee,

I'm sure he would've made it.

I just couldn't do it.

It was tough.

My grandpa had it even worse.

He played for Newell's,

and from what I've heard,

he played even better than me and my dad.

He was playing with his friends

by the railroad

and, yeah, the ball went up onto

the tracks, and he went up to get it.

The train hit him, and severed

his leg and a few of his fingers as well.

And yeah

Needless to say, that was the end of that.

Any chance of him being able

to play soccer came to an end.

So that was another

another failure in the family.

And Yeah, I think

I always had that in mind.

Because I always wanted

to do it for my dad, and my grandpa.

They both had things go wrong for them,

just when they were about to make it.

Just when they were that close

something happened.

But the third time's the charm,

like they say, right?

I love soccer.

I wish I could've been in his position.

I told him to work hard,

try to get to the top division,

to look out for himself.

To secure a future for himself.

I didn't want him to have it like me,

hauling charcoal for a living.

My dad had a friend who brought

charcoal from Santiago del Estero.

Because he knew who I was,

he started letting me buy

half a truckload of charcoal from him.

I bought it from him in bulk,

then I would package it myself,

and I'd go around delivering it.

He would park the truck out front

with a full load of coal in it.

The neighbors used to close their blinds.

They knew what was coming.

Every time the gates opened up,

the whole neighborhood just turned black.

It was a huge cloud of dust.

The front of our house was always black.

We couldn't do anything about it.

My grandma and Diana

would go out with a garden hose,

and they'd try to hose down the sidewalk.

It was a really, really dirty job,

and it was hard work too.

We had to shovel it, and scoop it.

We had some big, round containers,

and we had to haul them all inside.

And then, while they were

unloading the charcoal,

my job was to start filling all

the individual bags that Dad would sell.

And deliver.

As I got older,

I started working more hours.

He paid me one peso for 100 bags,

that cheapskate!

Do you know how crazy that is,

do you know what one hundred bags means?

I had to work for an hour and a half

or two hours to fill 100 of those bags.

Then again,

the peso was worth something back then,

so things weren't that bad.

Luckily, we were actually doing okay.

But then, a former coworker from

a company I used to work for

asked me if I'd be willing

to co-sign on a loan for him.

He needed a favor.

When I asked him what for,

he said he was going to open a bakery

there in the neighborhood.

Helping him was

the worst thing I've ever done

because he totally conned us.

He made one or two payments

but then nothing.

It was very sad because because

many years of our hard work

were going down the drain.

And it got so out of hand

that auction signs were being put up.

Right there

on the front door of our house.

JUDICIAL AUCTION

So my wife took over

the charcoal business,

and I had to take a second job

working at a lumberyard.

Years went by like that.

It took a long time,

but eventually with hard work,

we were able to pay off our house.

Nobody knows how hard it was for us.

Ángel Di María

from Rosario Central comes on.

I don't know who he is.

Every time he had the ball,

he tried to create an opportunity.

He was still very, very young,

but he was already displaying

that kind of courage.

You could see the potential

he had as a soccer player.

Rosario Central

is in the box.

Alemanno with the cross,

Rubén misses it Di María nets the ball!

How does your first Primera División

goal with Rosario Central feel?

I couldn't believe it.

I didn't know which way to run.

Soon as he touched the ball,

he scored. That's an impressive kid!

MIDFIELDER - 18 YEARS OLD

I've replayed that video a million times.

Uh, it was shortly after the second half

began, and as soon as it started,

Puflo and Alemanno,

got a deep pass and he crossed the ball.

Everybody missed the cross,

and I volleyed with my left-foot,

sending the ball to the opposite post.

While my career's had

thousands of beautiful moments,

I think this one is the best and

most beautiful of them all because

it was my first goal

while playing for the top division,

and while wearing

the jersey of the team I support.

And I scored it

at Rosario Central Stadium.

It was absolutely unforgettable.

He would transform.

Off the field calm and attentive.

But on the field he was unstoppable.

Here comes Di María

and his left foot.

Such an amazing player!

Di María presses. The jewel

of Rosario Central's youth system.

He's driving the defender crazy.

Here comes Di María again.

He has the defender completely confused.

Nobody can seem to stop this kid!

That's a foul! Di María's in close.

And he slams it in.

Di María scores! Goal!

As the training sessions

and games went by,

you could see he was improving.

Getting better and better

as a soccer player.

He would always dominate,

every situation, all the time.

It was brutal.

Di María stands on the ball.

He's driving the defender crazy!

Di María's in the box! And he scores!

Then he played in the Copa Libertadores.

He was great for Rosario Central.

Here comes Di María,

the lefty! What a play by Di María!

Di María scores!

The ball has reached the box.

Shot by Di María, and it's in!

Goal! Goal!

Then things went so quickly.

It went by fast. It all happened so fast.

When he turned 19

he got transferred to Benfica.

A round of applause

as Di María comes off the field.

Rosario Central was going broke,

apparently, and

they needed money, I guess.

So I was going to the highest bidder.

ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS

When Ángel

received Benfica's offer,

the first thing he did was

to gather the family all around a table

so we could talk about it.

DI MARÍA GOES TO BENFICA

THE CLUB PAID 6 MILLION EUROS

They were all coming with me,

or I wasn't leaving.

And yeah, that was hard.

Because I had to make a really

important professional decision.

And not just for my career.

I was going to have to provide

for my family there in Portugal,

and my sisters were going to have to

leave everything behind to come with me.

Our heads were spinning.

We thought about the girls, the house

What about our house?

Imagine!

Here we were going to Portugal,

but we were thinking about the house

and the charcoal business.

How do we leave all that behind?

We made the decision that

we would travel there all together,

as a family.

To Portugal, to Lisbon.

A place that

to tell you the truth,

I didn't even know existed.

How are you

and your family adjusting?

Yeah, we're doing okay.

They were all prepared for the change.

And they all knew

I'd have to travel somewhere

in order to be able to send home money.

But we're doing fine and we're happy.

Ángel di María was

officially introduced to Benfica.

The Argentinian player cost Benfica

six million euros for 80% of his transfer.

2007 LISBON, PORTUGAL

He was very young when he got here.

He still had a lot to learn.

I played with him during my last year.

Rui Costa

is taken off for Di María.

But even early on,

it was very easy to see

that he was about to be

one of the best players

that we had in Europe at the time.

Di María

rips through the defender

tries to get into the penalty box,

now he crosses

Watch out! Watch out! Benfica scores!

When he came in, Benfica was all set.

It was already a good team,

with a number of top players, even then,

so it took him some time

to be able to showcase his skills.

DI MARÍA STILL SEEN AS A SUBSTITUTE

HE'S FIGHTING TO BE A STARTER

For a while, I only got to play

for 15 or 20 minutes a game,

but the fans,

they showed me a lot of love.

And I felt it every time

I stepped onto the field.

Here's Di María,

one-on-one with the goalkeeper!

Di María, left foot. And goal!

Ángel was a little shy and very humble.

But he had that talent.

That amazing left foot of his.

One-on-one with

the goalkeeper, a great pass to Di María.

Di María heads towards goal.

He shoots, he scores, goal!

They sent me in for almost every game,

but I wasted a year on the bench.

A year on the subs' bench.

When I first

got to Benfica in 2008,

uh, he wasn't playing in every game.

He usually wasn't a starter

during his first year.

During my second year,

the same thing happened.

Another sub for Benfica,

and it's Di María again.

This is now a common occurrence.

It was It was tough for the whole family.

Two years had gone by,

and my family was struggling

with being so far away from everything.

My sisters had gone back to Argentina.

Sometimes, I heard my dad

crying on the phone at night

as he talked to my mom,

and that was tearing me apart.

And all during that second year,

when I still wasn't playing very much,

it was one of those decisions

I seriously considered

I really thought about

going back to Rosario Central.

I knew they would gladly take me back.

I called him, and I said,

"Ángel, come back, sweetie."

"We don't need that money."

"Your dad and I can still work,

that's okay."

"He and I can go back to work,

don't you worry about it."

"You can play here,

you don't have to play in Portugal."

"Play soccer in Argentina."

No.

No, he wasn't hearing any of that.

"You taught me to never give up,

and I'm not giving up," he said.

But Ángel had to put up with so,

so many things there.

Centered through the right,

a pass to Di María.

He shoots. Too high!

What's going on, Di María?

That was much too high.

I helped him with everything.

I was calling my wife, asking her how

to cook some of his favorite recipes.

She told me all the details,

and everything I needed to get,

and I wrote it all down in a notebook.

I had everything for

every meal written down.

It was always grilled something.

Meat, chicken or fish

He was always grilling.

We had to pay for everything out on

the deck when we left, I'd burned it all.

MY DAD COOKS THE BEST BARBECUE

Look, Daddy's home!

Hi!

Hi.

-How are you?

-Good, and you?

I came to Lisbon in August 2009.

Ángel was living with his dad.

And he wasn't feeling

all that great when I got there

because those two years of not playing

WIFE

had been hard on him.

It'd been tough on him

and his parents too.

With the team traveling,

and them barely seeing each other,

it was a difficult situation.

We started talking on instant messenger.

That's how we first

got to know each other.

And also she was close friends

with a cousin on my dad's side.

His cousin and I attended middle school

together and worked together.

We're still really close.

I've been a diehard Rosario fan forever.

Going to the stadium and all that,

long before I met Ángel,

even though my family supports Newell's.

One day while I was with his cousin,

I sent Ángel a message saying

it'd be great

if he returned to Rosario Central.

I'd just left, and she wanted me

to come back to play for Rosario Central.

And, so that's how we started talking.

And little by little

things started to move forward.

And yeah,

we eventually got to see each other

when I went to play for the national team.

When we had a day off.

As it turned out, he was free on a day

I was going out dancing with my friends.

And that was non-negotiable.

I told him that he'd have to meet me at

the club because I wasn't postponing that.

He said he would be there.

I doubted that.

So I went out,

and suddenly he texts me saying,

"I'm waiting outside."

The last person I wanted to date

was a soccer player, but I fell for him.

And he said, "I'm not like the others.

I want a family, a serious relationship,

or I wouldn't be here."

I wanted to test the waters.

I wasn't going all in

if I didn't know him well.

He said,

"If you come with me, you're staying."

He was confident I wouldn't

want to leave once I got there.

And my dad said,

"Jorgelina, you should go."

"If it doesn't work out,

you can always come home."

And so, I went.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JORGELINA

She came

as a blessing to my life.

And from the very moment

she became a part of it, uh,

my life changed completely.

I was now playing more for Benfica.

It was an incredible year for me.

I wish I could've been more like Jorgelina

when Ángel was going through

those difficult times.

She is the right kind of woman

for a soccer player

who's always been somewhat disrespected.

The moment she shows her teeth,

you know you've lost the fight.

Absolutely nothing you can do.

I thank God for that.

The only thing I did was

to always tell him that he could make it.

Even if he didn't play,

or he wasn't chosen as a starter.

Even if he only got to play five,

ten, or 15 minutes,

he knew what he needed to do.

It's a long pass

to Di María, who fools the defender!

What an amazing move! Di María

Benfica scores! Goal!

An amazing goal by Di María!

"ALL MY GOALS ARE FOR JORGELINA"

The first time

I celebrated a goal that way

was when I scored in a game

where she was in the stands,

and I made a heart with my hands.

And yeah, that became my celebration.

I wasn't expecting it,

we never discussed it.

I was in the stands.

And the moment he scored,

he made a heart,

and pointed up at my box seat.

It became a ritual of his,

he's very superstitious.

There he is,

Di María, and no offside here.

He stops, crosses the ball over

to Nuno Gomes! Gomes scores!

The following year, for Benfica,

Ángel had a breakthrough,

which was bound to happen at some point.

He's going for a hat-trick

over the goalkeeper's head.

The Argentinian does his magic!

Little by little,

Di María showed everybody,

uh, why he was there.

He became a part of Benfica,

and the team loved him.

Everybody loved him.

One-on-one

with the goalkeeper, shoots!

Wow, what an amazing goal by Di María!

Di Maria passes from the left,

he crosses, and Benfica scores!

Di María turns. The ball is bouncing

up and down, just the way he likes it.

He shoots with his left foot.

What a goal, Di María!

We are the champions!

Once again,

he's a Portuguese League champion.

Once again, Di María was

one of the main players in the match.

Yeah, I think things went very well.

I'm very happy.

The time I spent there

at Benfica was really important to me.

Because

that's where I started growing a lot more,

where I started learning more,

where I started to, uh,

learn to become a a better player.

And that led to me going to the Olympics.

BEIJING OLYMPICS, 2008

For me, that was truly a moment

a truly unique moment in my career.

A GOLDEN HOPE

Argentina's national

under-23 team is training in Beijing

to repeat the gold

they won at Athens 2004.

ARGENTINA STRIVES

TO EMULATE ATHENS 2004 SUCCESS

You only get to play once at the Olympics.

Meeting Messi for the first time,

meeting Roman, Masche, Gago

That was just unforgettable.

That was the beginning

of a really nice team,

and we played together

throughout our careers,

spanning ten or 15 years,

for the national team.

I met Ángel while we were

training for the Olympics.

We ended up working out

a lot together in those weeks, he and I.

To this day he's one of my best friends

in the soccer world.

I started out as a substitute.

And then I had the chance to play,

to win, and to earn my spot as a starter.

That felt incredible.

Everyone knows what happened next,

and that final game was unforgettable.

It's time for the final.

Argentina and Nigeria

will play for the gold.

I scored the goal the way I always do,

you know? Sprint and find space.

I turned around, and he sprinted,

just the way he always has.

All the way from the back.

Loose ball in the middle.

There is Messi, who turns,

swivels and passes to Ángel Di María.

He's in the box,

he chips over the goalkeeper,

into the back of the net.

Scoring a goal in the final,

and it was my first important goal

playing for the national team.

That goal is still remembered to this day,

and it will continue to be remembered.

Which makes it something special

for me and my family.

He just has the skill

to be able to score that way,

whether the particular situation

calls for fast speed or slow speed.

He always has that touch.

THE GOLDEN NOODLE

Because of the way he moved on the field,

I think it was a fitting nickname for him.

You could say that noodle suits

him better than empanada would have.

That goal earned us

the Olympic gold medal.

It was a beautiful moment.

Argentina has won another trophy.

This is the generation that will pursue

the dream of the World Cup in two years.

I'm 71 years old, but I'm not dying

until I see a grandchild play soccer.

And better still if he comes from my club,

Rosario Central.

Now you need to go back

to Rosario Central, sweetie.

You need to give it your all.

Just the way you've been doing it so far.

You just keep on doing that.

You need to keep

listening to your parents.

Eating right,

always getting to bed at the right time.

That's how you achieved this.

This is my little museum.

I have all of Ángel's stuff.

All the jerseys he's swapped

after every game.

All the jerseys he's worn

while playing for different teams

in Europe.

And here I have a bunch

of scarves that I've bought

from all the different countries

that he's traveled to.

TO ÁNGEL, WITH ALL MY LOVE

MARADONA

And look what I have framed here.

The jersey that Maradona signed for Ángel.

That was the 2010 World Cup.

A gift from Diego.

News now from Ezeiza,

where it's been announced that

Maradona will be the new manager

of the Argentine national team.

I want you all to know

that I'll give it my all

for things to go well for us.

We are We are, uh, confident

because we can wake up every morning,

knowing that we can and will

give the national team what it deserves.

And we will work every day

to build a better national team.

I thought it was an impossible dream

to meet Diego, you know?

When I met him for the first time.

So, yeah,

it was a very special moment for me.

Di María gets the ball.

Gets past his opponent.

Moving into the box,

he's one-on-one with the keeper!

Diego means

everything, you know?

He came to see a Benfica game.

And once the game was over,

I was told that he wanted me

to go over to his hotel

to have lunch and talk with him.

He, uh, offered me the chance

to play in my first World Cup.

He called me up to the national team.

Maradona's Argentine team will be put

to test in the heights of La Paz.

Having Diego Maradona

there as a coach,

and Messi on the field

created high hopes for all of Argentina.

It felt like something quite strong

had been assembled.

JUST LIKE IN 1986

Di María comes on.

I was suspended for six games

after the game against Bolivia.

I thought I'd never play again

for the national team.

We can see

Di María losing the ball,

and then giving an outrageous kick

to the Bolivian player.

A kick that summarizes

the powerlessness of the national team.

Definitely a red card.

He will be missing several games.

Bye, Di María.

Diego supported me at a time

when I really didn't deserve any support.

DIEGO BACKS UP ÁNGEL

THE COACH QUESTIONS FIFA'S SANCTION

And I remember what he

told my family then,

"The more he gets criticized or vilified,

the more he'll play. Don't you worry."

Knowing Diego, it doesn't surprise me.

I know that he definitely

tended to be overprotective

with his players, you know?

He was always that way.

Diego spoke of Ángel

as if he had known him all his life.

And he knew he just knew,

that Ángel was really going places.

Di María is a spectacular soccer player.

As we used to say,

he has the fighting spirit in his blood.

MARADONA'S GUIDING HAND

With Diego as a coach

and Leo on the pitch,

we felt like,

how could we not win the World Cup?

2010 FIFA WORLD CUP

SOUTH AFRICA

Having Diego there really

meant a lot to us.

It was a dream come true

to be playing for Diego as our coach,

and to have him there

at the World Cup.

When you're playing in the

World Cup for your national team,

you really want just one thing.

You want to fight to the end

and play all seven games.

Overall, it was a good World Cup for us,

and we looked good.

We were doing well up until

we got into the quarterfinals.

You can be at the top of your game,

and still get sent

right back home if you're not careful.

This is a reality check.

Argentina did not measure up,

and will now

be leaving South Africa early.

We played against

the German national team who,

at the time, were proving themselves

to Germany and to the world.

And they showed they were clearly

superior to us.

Messi and Maradona's dream

has come to an end.

Argentina falls short

once again at the World Cup.

We thought this was the one.

We just can't seem to win.

We never do.

We all had the same hope.

From the moment we left Pretoria,

and arrived in Cape Town,

we thought about nothing

but beating Germany.

But it didn't work out that way.

That result and the fact that we didn't at

least get to the semifinals or the final,

was considered by some to be a failure.

But I don't see it that way,

because I think Argentina made

a good showing at that World Cup.

And having Maradona

as a coach was awesome.

Away from the World Cup,

Spanish soccer has been active

as Barcelona has announced

Thierry Henry's departure,

Begiristain stepping down as secretary,

and Real Madrid has made official

the signing of the Argentine midfielder

Ángel Di María.

DI MARÍA: SIGNED AWAY

Playing for Real Madrid

means being considered

one of the top 14 or 15

or so players in the world.

Because it's one of the top soccer clubs

in the world, no question.

It's like playing for a national team.

Of course,

when we are speaking about Real Madrid,

there is always a little question mark

about can this player

be amazing to play in Real Madrid

because, in Real Madrid, only the top can.

A young player coming

from Argentina to Benfica,

developing in Benfica for a few years,

is he good enough

to come to Real Madrid and

smash?