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Reborn and in form

BUENOS AIRES
Diego Maradona moved swiftly through a narrow passageway on a recent Monday night, clapping his hands and shouting, Vamos, vamos!
For a moment, the scene resembled a tunnel leading from a locker room to a soccer field, with Maradona psyching up his teammates. But this was backstage at a television studio. Instead of jersey, shorts and cleats, Maradona wore a dark pinstriped sport coat, an untucked button-down shirt, ragged jeans and casual shoes.
In its latest phase, the rollercoaster life of Argentina's most famous athlete appears every Monday night on live network television. Just prior to the third edition of La Noche del 10 (Night of the 10), named after his revered jersey number, his entrance energized the studio. Many of his new teammates -- technical crew perched on scaffolding, producers scurrying about, tango dancers rehearsing their steps -- echoed his call: Vamos, Diego!
About 16 months after lying hospitalized, near death, due to a confluence of heart, weight and drug addiction problems, Maradona, 44, looks great.
Bathed in dance-club lights, he burst out of a smoke-machine cloud as Los Piojos, an Argentine rock band, played his theme song. He grinned and blew kisses to the audience.
The set features a ''living room'' of three white leather couches, with a total of seven disc-shaped seat backs, each featuring a two-foot close-up of Maradona. The portrait shows his face partially shaded, as if he were advancing from a dark place to a brighter one. Intentional or not, it's fitting.
Maradona's tale is one of extremes. Born in the impoverished Villa Fiorito district on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, he rapidly achieved soccer stardom after his professional debut at age 17 with the club Argentinos Juniors. He scored 311 goals in 488 professional games and won league championships in Argentina, Spain and Italy. His greatest moment came in 1986, when Argentina won its second World Cup title, thanks largely to his dominant play.
Since he retired in 1997, Maradona's life took many turns, most for the worse. In 2000, he was treated for a cocaine overdose. He steadily gained weight, ballooning to about 270 pounds on his five-foot five-inch frame. In April 2004, he entered an intensive-care unit with heart and lung problems. Hundreds of Argentines held vigils outside the hospital.
Maradona spent time in a psychiatric ward against his will, then took legal action against his family so he could decide where to be treated. He chose Cuba, and says now that he has
not taken drugs for a year and a half.
In that same stretch, he severed ties with longtime agent Guillermo Coppola and made peace with his family. Last March, he went to Colombia and underwent gastric bypass surgery, which has helped him trim down to about 165 pounds. That remarkable achievement has started a weight-loss trend.
Overweight Colombians are flocking to doctors for the same procedure. At least 14 Colombians have filed lawsuits to have government-provided health insurance pay for the same surgery.
The cases have already become known as "Maradona lawsuits," Gina Magnolia Riano, director of the Ibero-American Social Security Organization, said at a medical forum on Monday.
A judge recently ruled in one man's favor, and his surgery had been
scheduled for last Wednesday.
Maradona's brush with death and his reconnection with his family fueled his remarkable return to health.
''They say that [my recovery] is a miracle, but no -- it is because of love for my daughters,'' Maradona told Gente magazine, referring to Dalma, 18, and Giannina, 16. ``No doctor, no clinic can measure that. Love is what saved me.''
Maradona's visibility increased this year. But when La Noche del 10 debuted Aug. 15, it was the unveiling of a man remade. Not just slimmer,
Maradona was more tactful, more intimate, more gracious -- to a point. He extended an olive branch to Brazilian soccer great Pelé, trading songs, jerseys and headed passes.
The TV show is broadcast either live or on tape delay to Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil and, soon, Honduras and some European countries. The show is rife with self-congratulation, and it features seven to 10 guests from sports and show business, all famous in Argentina.
Maradona never fails to shower each of them with praise, sometimes in excess. He twice told San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili: ``You're going to get to the moon someday, and you will represent Argentina well.''
Regardless, the combination of star power and a healthy Maradona has viewers riveted. The show won the ratings battle by a large margin, with
more than three million people tuning in each of the first three weeks. Even the show's famous guests are awestruck.
''This show is like a synthesis of everything that is Argentina,'' said Daniel ''Piti'' Ferná ndez, guitarist for Los Piojos. ``And nobody else could do it. It is tremendous, how people are coming in from all different channels, with different contracts, different interests -- it's for Diego. It's for all that is Diego, for the joys that he gave us and everything he achieved through soccer.''
The latest player anointed to follow in Maradona's footsteps is 18-year-old Lionel Messi, now at F.C. Barcelona in Spain. He appeared on a recent show. ''My legs were trembling,'' Messi said. ``I could not believe being so close to Diego. Who wasn't a fanatic of him?''
Not all Argentines are enamored of the renewed Maradona.
''Aside from the fact that Diego was a very good soccer player, it seems to me [the show] is nothing,'' said Alvaro Pandiero, 24. ``Adrian Suar, the artistic manager of Channel 13, took advantage of Diego's situation. Now that he is better, he has come back here and still loved by the people, to make a program, to rob the people and to keep making more money.''
Others are encouraged but cautious. ''It makes me happy to see Maradona like this because he is a human being,'' said Liliana Guererro, 51. ``I don't know anything about
sports, but he has been through something very hard, and that is drugs. For him as a human being, I hope he stays this way.''
With Maradona's impeccable flair for the dramatic, just about any plot twist, bold statement or life change seems possible in his future. But two things are certain: A large portion of Argentina will continue to love him, regardless. And an even larger portion will be watching, attentively.
-- INTERNET SOURCE