Kerala businessman to build museum in memory of Diego Maradona

A Kerala-based businessman on Monday said a world-class museum will be built in memory of Diego Maradona,with a gold sculpture of the Argentine football legend as the main attraction.

Chairman and Managing Director of Boby Chemmanur International Group, Boby Chemmanur, who was instrumental in bringing the soccer staron a visit to Kerala eight years ago, saidthe life-size sculpture will represent ‘The Hand of God,’ as the Argentine forward described a crucial goal he scored in the 1986 FIFA World Cup which his team went on to win.

The proposed museum is to come up in Kolkata or in south India, he told a press conference here. It will showcase Maradona’s professional and personal life, he said. The museum will blend the aesthetics of art and technology, Boby Chemmanur said.

The upcoming museum on several acres of land will have a gold sculpture of Maradona as its main attraction, he said.

Recalling his “close friendship” with Maradona for a decade, Boby Chemmanur said the relationship began with the footballer at Dubai in 2011. Later, Maradona inaugurated a Chemmanur jewellery showroom in Dubai.

“I gifted Maradona a miniature gold statue of his figure. Accepting it, the soccer star expressed the desire to see his life-size gold sculpture related to ‘The Hand of God,” he said.

“I am extremely happy to be fulfilling that desire of Maradona,” Boby Chemmanur said.

‘The Hand of God’ goal was scored against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup.

TheBoby Chemmanur Group, headquartered in Thrissur, had Maradona as its ambassador after the Argentinian signed the deal in March 2018.

Maradona was in the northern part of the state for two days in October 2012 to inaugurate a showroom of Chemmannur Jewellers in Kannur.

“The museum is my tribute to Maradona. It will be a storehouse of information related to the great player and his football. It will function as a centre for entertainment of international standards,” he said.

The curator of the museum will be artist-writer Bony Thomas, a founder-trustee of Kochi Biennale Foundation that conducts India’s biggest contemporary art festival.