Maradona to be honoured with 40-metre high mural to mark late Argentine legend's 62nd birthday

• Artist Maximiliano Bagnasco commissioned

• Will be visible for planes landing and taking off
• Marks what would have been his 62nd birthday

WHAT HAPPENED? Maradona is perhaps the footballer who has been immortalised the most regularly in the form of murals. The walls on the streets of Argentina and Naples are covered in paintings of the World Cup winner and a friend of his family has come up with the idea of placing a brand new, 40-metre mural on the side of a building near Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires.

WHAT HE SAID: Bagnasco has once again been commissioned for the work having painted Maradona in smaller murals around the world. He said: “I always wanted to make a great mural of Diego here in Argentina and I came for this. We started it on October 7 and it will be finished for his birthday."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: The idea at the heart of the great gift is that people coming in and out of Argentina via aeroplane will catch a glimpse of perhaps the country's greatest export. The picture on the mural - selected by his daughter Gianinna - is one from the 1982 World Cup.

IN THREE PHOTOS:

Murales Bagnasco

Getty Images

Getty Images

WHAT NEXT? On his birthday, a number of his relatives, friends and former teammates will travel to the site of the mural to attend the official opening event. From then on, it will be available for the whole world to see with those leaving the country by airplane having the best view.