Diego Armando Maradona's two Rolex watches finally explained!

Once a ball player - forever a ball player, as this picture of the corpulent Hand of God conclusively proves. But really, I shouldn't be small minded here and pour my personal (Brazilian fan's) bile on the man. Besides, this post is not about balls at all. What you can see in this picture besides the rather awkward gesture is the two watches our protagonist is carrying. Why is it important? Because these watches are definitely not Rolex.

And why are they not Rolex? Because at the time when this picture was taken, Maradona was already Rolex-less, for a simple enough reason:

Diego Maradona had some time on his hands near Naples on Tuesday until Italy's tax police took two Rolex watches from the Argentine soccer legend to chip away at his $38.5 million bill in unpaid income taxes.

"We were surprised he was wearing them because he knows that when he comes to Italy he risks losing something," said Tax Police Maj. Geremia Guercia, speaking by phone from the Naples suburb of Giugliano In Campania.

On another occasion Italian Tax police took off his earrings as well, but this is really another story. So why, you might want to ask, I am rehashing the old (2006) scoop? Just because recently an historical fact came by (thanks to L.G.) that put the curious two-Rolex habit of Mr Maradona in a totally new light. It is not his vanity or his poor taste (although there is an abundance of both in this case) that have driven the Hand of God to that habit. It is his ideology and his boundless admiration for his role model: Fidel (The Beard) Castro. Here is the story:

Here Fidel Castro is seen smoking a Cuban cigar and wearing two Rolex watches in the Kremlin while he chats with Khrushchev, in front of a Karl Marx picture.
...
Fidel Castro was often spotted wearing two Rolex’s at the same time – one of them a GMT, the other a Submariner. In total the watches gave Castro a three time zone overview by a glance on his wrist. The watches have been set for Havana, Washington and Moscow time.

There is one hardly significant detail: if you click on the picture you shall clearly see that The Beard wears both watches on the left hand, unlike the Hand of God who wears one watch on each hand. Well, this is easily explained - his hands are much shorter than these of The Beard, and two watches carried on one hand would have created a problem.

On the other hand (no pun intended), the Hand of God used his shortish appendages well enough - to the glory of himself and his team... 'nuff said.