Estadio Diego Armando Maradona

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Estadio Diego Armando Maradona
El Tifón de Boyacá (Boyacá street's typhoon)
Full name Estadio Diego Armando Maradona
Former names Estadio de la Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors
Location Villa General Mitre, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Owner Argentinos Juniors
Capacity 24,000[1]
Field size 100x67m
Surface grass
Construction
Built 1995-2003
Opened 26 December 2003
Construction cost 8,000,000 dollars
Architect Héctor Caracciolo
Tenants
Argentinos Juniors (2003-present)

Estadio Diego Armando Maradona is a football stadium in Villa General Mitre, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the home venue of Argentinos Juniors, and has a capacity of 24,000.[2]

It was given its name in 2004 in honour of the former Argentinos player Diego Maradona who made his first professional appearance ever in that field in 1976,[3] following the refurbishment of the ground, and to celebrate the club's centenary.[4]

History

Before the construction of this stadium, there was another one on the same place, wooden made, which first opened in 1940. Since it was small and unsafe, it was left apart in the early 1980s, and the football team moved its basis to the nearer Arquitecto Ricardo Etcheverri stadium, in the neighbourhood of Caballito. The idea was to built a modern and bigger stadium with the 5,800,000 dollars that the club received from the transfer of Diego Armando Maradona to the FC Barcelona but finally that money was invested in constructing other venues at the multisport complex Las Malvinas, owned by the same club, and in bringing some first level footballers in order to succeed at the national championship. The project of the new stadium had to wait until the next decade.[5]

In 1995, the old stadium was demolished, but at the same time a deep economic crisis hit the club and continued for a long time, delaying the works for eight years. Finally, in 2003 the new stadium was finished, and it opened its doors in December 26. Six months later, the team returned to the Argentinean First Division, where it stays nowadays.[6] The opening ceremony included two football games between the 1984 team, that won the first national championship for the club versus the team that won the second division tournament in 1997, and another one between the Argentinean U-20 national team and a mix of some of the best players born in the club's youth divisions such as Juan Pablo Sorín, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Placente, Carlos Mac Allister, Claudio Borghi, Fabricio Coloccini, Leonel Gancedo and Sergio Batista together with some others remarkable footballers that played in Argentinos, such as Ubaldo Fillol.[7]

References

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