Before Lionel Messi or Pope Francis, football legend Diego Maradona was hands-down the most famous Argentine person in the world.

Throughout the decades, his ubiquitous persona had an immeasurable influence on the lives of several generations of Argentines. From those who got to see and rave about him dominating the 1986 World Cup to younger generations of fans who have only known El Diez through anecdotes of their relatives or his former teammates, everyone — fans and haters alike — has witnessed his mythical status.

After his passing in 2020, over a million people showed up to pay their respects at his public funeral in Buenos Aires, and the country as a whole mourned a man who had long transcended his role as a gifted footballer. But aside from the massive, global fame of Maradona, the sports hero, there are countless stories of Maradona as a person floating around, and many who shared even a minute of their lives with him are eager to tell their story.

Proyecto Pelusa, a gargantuan project created by long-time friends Damián Cukierkorn and Sebastián Schor, is a collection of those everyday, common stories.

“The goal was to depict something that happened with Diego — and only happened with a few people — which is that you can almost recreate every day of his life through the photos he took with the people he came across,” Schor told the Herald.

“It’s like a biography, only through the eyes of the fans. Our goal is to showcase that.”

The project was born from Cukierkorn’s mind, who started working on it in 2010, but technological limitations made it hard for him to gather enough photos. Ten years later, during the COVID-19 lockdown, he shared the idea with Schor, and the two decided to tackle it together.

They opened an Instagram account to share the images they had, understanding that it was the best way to reach out to fans........

© Buenos Aires Herald