Navigating the devastation of a world without Diego Maradona, the masses sought a collective embrace in the Argentine capital on Thursday.

“You find some kind of consolation in this,” said Marcela Rodriguez, 52, tucked into the throngs who had come to pay their final respects to the football legend in Buenos Aires.

“He was an ambassador. You go to another country and you say you’re from Argentina, it’s basically the same as saying Maradona. And that fills you with pride. So I’m going to remember him as a great man.”

It has been an emotionally intense 24 hours in Argentina, already reeling from the economic impact of the pandemic, now on its knees over the shocking passing of one of its most prized possessions. Maradona died of a heart attack on Wednesday. He was 60.

Argentinians sobbed, and papered over the pain with singing and dancing in the streets. Thousands spent the night at the famous Obelisk in Buenos Aires, migrating under cover of darkness to the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, where Maradona’s body lay in wake. Fathers brought their daughters. Mothers clung on to their sons.

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