Watching Football on TV

 TV came to smaller towns of Sarawak only in 1974 when some civil servants were able to afford to buy those buy TV sets. Most bought with cash as the shop keepers were not sure that their customers would pay their installments faithfully.

Since that time most longhouses also purchased their units which were literally brought from the shops to the motor launches, and then carried on bareback to the longhouse.

And Football games were watched on TV.

They watched Pele, Maradonna, etc. Boys were born and they were given footballers names.

Thus in Sarawak we have names like Pele, Maradonna, Ronaldo, Lionel, Zeydane, Luis, Xavier and Messi.

The Ibans call this system of naming, "angkat" or "lifting of good name". Teachers who teach in rural primary schools would smile when they see the names of their pupils on the school register. Fathers name their children after great people. And so why not great footballers?

They hope their sons grow into great footballers. That's the belief. Give a good name, and hope the son would be a good man.

Diego Armando Maradona Franco was born on 30th October 1960 in Lanus, Bueono Aires in Argentina. He was a small guy in the football field at 5 ft 5 inches But he was good in dribbling, often passing some formidable opponents on a run.

He was most well kown for his free kick and his presence had a great effect on his team mates.

His was the "Golden Kid" of the Argentine Team.

He was No. 10, a number easily recognised by young and old, men and women. 

He made football history with world record transfer fee twice, first when he transferred to Barcelona for a then-world record £5 million, and second, when he transferred to Napoli for another record fee £6.9 million. He played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys during his club career, and is most famous for his time at Napoli and Barcelona where he won numerous accolades.

In his international career with Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. In the 1986 World Cup quarter final, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history for two different reasons. The first goal was an unpenalized handling foul known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.(Wikipedia)

Maradona became the coach of Argentina's national football team in November 2008. He was in charge of the team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa before leaving at the end of the tournament. He then coached Dubai-based club Al Wasl in the UAE Pro-League for the 2011–12 season. In 2017, Maradona became the coach of Fujairah before leaving at the end of the season.^[12] In May 2018, Maradona was announced as the new chairman of Belarusian club Dynamo Brest.^[13] He arrived in Brest and was presented by the club to start his duties in July.^[14] From September 2018 to June 2019, Maradona was coach of Mexican club Dorados.^[15] He was the coach of Argentine Primera División club Gimnasia de La Plata from 2019 until his death.(Wikipedia) 

The Argentine was only 60 when he passed on.