On December 14, FC Barcelona and Club Atlético Boca Juniors will be meeting in what is being called the Maradona Cup, a friendly to honour the memory of the great Diego Armando Maradona just over a year after his death.
The venue is Mrsool Park, in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, which holds 25,000 spectators. Barça and Boca are, of course, two of the clubs that enjoyed the services of Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest players ever to grace the game, who passed away last 25 November 2020. The game will be screened both on Barça TV and via the club’s Barça TV+ streaming service (also on-demand).
Maradona first played for Boca in the 1981/82 season, winning Metropolitano Championship and earning qualification for the Libertadores Cup. He returned to the club from 1995 to 1997, his final two seasons before retiring as a player.
He was also at FC Barcelona, where he played for two seasons (from 1982 to 1984) and made 58 appearances. In that time he celebrated three titles, the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Super Cup and the now defunct Spanish League Cup.
Barça and Boca Juniors have met ten times in the past, most recently for the Joan Gamper Trophy in 2018, which Barça won 3-0. This will be the second time the club has played in Saudi Arabia, after the country hosted the Spanish Super Cup in 2020, and which it will be doing again in January 2022.
