Estadio Diego Armando Maradona – stadium description

Estadio Diego Armando Maradona is located some 9 km from the centre of Buenos Aires, south west of the Jorge Newbery airport, within 30 minutes away from it. Bus lines run north of the stadium, while parking is extremely scarce because of the densely populated area. The stadium occupies an entire quarter in a grid-shaped urban fabric and the nearest parking is a block away, to the west.

Outer walls of the stadium are adorned with impressive, supporter- and youth-created murals. Auditorium is divided into three grandstands, with two tall ones along the sides also hosting the floodlights. There are no fans behind the south goal, where an LED giant screen is located.

The name is owed to Diego Armando Maradona’s tenure at the club. He debuted on this very field on October 20, 1976 (aged just 15!), during a fixture between AA Argentinos Juniors and Talleres de Córdoba. The home team may have lost but the game began Maradona’s 5-year career at Argentinos Juniors. His patronage was included in the name in 2005.

In its current form, the stadium was inaugurated on the second day of Christmas, 2003. On that day it hosted some 30,000 people. It was built as the first concrete stadium on the site of AAAJ’s old ground, opened back on April 27, 1940 and then demolished in 1995. That same year construction of the new venue began, designed by Héctor Raúl Caracciolo. The old stadium’s playing field was far too short, it only measured 96 metres. This later forced the current layout, without a south end auditorium.

Initially it was hoped that Maradona’s transfer would finance the construction cost but high expectations were not met and the build was abandoned. Plans of the club coincided with the massive economic crisis of 1994/95 and plans had to be reviewed. Piece by piece, Argentinos Juniors were putting the stadium together, which eventually took 8 long years to build.

On April 29, 2004 Leo Messi became one more legend of Argentine football to debut here, as member of the U20 team. Still owned by Argentinos Juniors, the stadium is expected to see further upgrades in upcoming years.