Maradona's hotel room in Kerala becomes memorial

The hotel suite in Kannur where football great Diego Maradona stayed during a visit eight years ago is to be preserved as a memorial to the Argentine player.

Kannur:The ‘Maradona Suite’ in Blue Nile Hotel in Kannur has been turned into a memorial by the hotel owner as a tribute to Maradona, the ‘God of football’. Diego Maradona, who had visited Kannur in 2012 on a two-day visit, had stayed in Room 309, a suite in Hotel Blue Nile.

The articles and even the soap Maradona had used and the pictures clicked have all been well preserved by the hotel owner as if in a museum.

Though Maradona had left Kannur after his short trip, the room where he stayed for two days was soon converted as a ‘Maradona suite’, preserving the memories of his 'touches' intact.

All the articles used by him have been preserved and kept carefully as if in a museum. This includes the cigar smoked by the soccer star and the shell of the prawns that he ate. They have been framed and hung on the walls.

The hotel owner Raveendran, who is a Maradona fan himself, took the initiative to preserve all the articles, like plates, cutlery, glasses, bed sheets, and even toilet soaps and frames in memory of Maradona’s visit.

Raveendran says he treasures the footballs autographed and given by Maradona. The autographed balls are invaluable to the hotel owner Raveendran who also mourns the death of the soccer legend.

With the news of the soccer legend’s death from a cardiac attack, Kerala Government had officially declared a two day mourning in the State