Legends in Chechnya

Legends of world football, including Diego Maradona and Luis Figo, walked on to the pitch of Grozny’s gleaming new stadium in Chechnya on Wednesday night to gasps of delight from 30,000 fans who are still rebuilding lives from the legacy of nearly two decades of war. Their 5-2 defeat to a team spearheaded by Chechnya’s controversial leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who scored three goals to the Argentinian superstar’s one, seemed only to reaffirm the diplomatic significance of the match. “Grozny is developing. Its infrastructure is getting better all the time,” Figo said. “Things are only going to improve in Grozny. People are living well.”