Kochi: Kerala-based businessman Boby Chemmanur said Monday a world-class museum will be built in memory of Diego Maradona. The museum will have a gold sculpture of Diego Maradona as the main attraction. Chemmanur is the CMD of Boby Chemmanur International Group. He was instrumental in bringing the soccer star on a visit to Kerala eight years ago.
Chemmanur said the life-size sculpture will represent ‘The Hand of God’. This is how Maradona described a crucial goal he scored in the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal against England. Maradona, led his to team to the World Cup victory that year.
The proposed museum is to come up in Kolkata or in south India, Chemmanur he told a press conference here. It will showcase Maradona’s professional and personal life. It will blend the aesthetics of art and technology, added the businessman.
Chemmanur recalled his ‘close friendship’ with Maradona for a decade. He informed the relationship began with the footballer at Dubai in 2011. Later, Maradona inaugurated a Chemmanur jewellery showroom in the same city.
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“I gifted Maradona a miniature gold statue of his figure. Accepting it, the soccer star expressed the desire to see his life-size gold sculpture related to ‘The Hand of God’,” Chemmanur said. “I am extremely happy to be fulfilling that desire of Maradona,” Chemmanur added.
The Boby Chemmanur Group is headquartered in Thrissur. It had signed Maradona as its ambassador after the Argentinian signed the deal in March 2018. Maradona was in the northern part of Kerala for two days in October 2012. During that period he inaugurated a showroom of Chemmannur Jewellers in Kannur.
“The museum is my tribute to Maradona. It will be a storehouse of information related to the great player and his football. It will function as a centre for entertainment of international standards,” asserted Chemmanur.