The reporters were stopped by Ukrainian police
Two South American journalists have revealed that a conversation about Argentine legends Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi helped to save their lives in Ukraine.
The two reporters were out in Ukraine covering the ongoing Russian invasion of the neighbouring country and as per Argentine TV channel Telefe, they were stopped at a checkpoint by the Ukrainian authorities and taken to a police station to be questioned.
Despite initially fearing they would be in trouble, a conversation which included one of the journalists showing his tattoo of the late Maradona, as well as a conversation on Messi, helped to relax the tension.
Chilean journalist Daniel Matamala explained the events on his Instagram story, saying: “Today, at one of the road checkpoints, the police seized our documents, cameras, telephones, and escorted us to the police station.
“The first interrogations were tense: it is a country at war and spies or saboteurs are suspected.
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“Until one of the policemen saw the passports of my Argentine colleagues and among a lot of words in Ukrainian, he said two that we understood ‘Messi’ and ‘Maradona.’
“That’s where everything changed. Our great cameraman Juan Zamudio showed that he has a tattoo of Diego Maradona in the calf.”
The second journalist, Guillermo Panizza then added that once his phone was returned to him, he then began to show photos of himself pictured with Messi – and even paid tribute to him.
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“It’s so big that he helped us get out of a police station in Ukraine. Thank you for this photo and for being Argentine.”
Panizza also reserved praise for the cameraman Zamudio for his quick-thinking to show his tattoo of Maradona. He added: “HUGE. Outstanding workers and generous people. THANK YOU.
“It will never be the same again between us and in the relationship with others. Long live love, long live La Paz.”
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