Diego Maradona has named his first 20 man Euro-based provisional roster ahead of Argentina’s November 19th friendly at Hampden Park against George Burley’s Scotland.
With the previous agreement between Argentina and Barcelona President Joan Laporta that Leonel Messi would be left out of Friendlies due to his involvement with Argentina’s Gold Medal winning 2008 Beijing Olympics in effect, Maradona’s quartet of Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Lisandro Lopez and German Denis will look to carry the load up front.
Batista, the Argentinian Olympic Head Coach who won Gold at the Beijing Olympics with his Assistant Brown will continue their roles in the youth set up while forming the Full coaching team with Maradona ahead of Argentina’s next match on November 19th against Scotland in Glasgow.
With the Argentine Football Federation set to make an announcement on Thursday regarding the future of who will lead the Albicelestes, Diego Armando Maradona might very well get the biggest 48th birthday present he could ever imagine.
Reports coming out of Argentina are starting to trickle out that the former Boca and Argentina legend (who has 91 caps and 34 goals to his tally) has edged out Carlos Bianchi, Miguel Angel Russo and Sergio Batista to nab one of the most difficult jobs in the world after Alfio Basile turned in his resignation following Argentina’s loss against Chile.
Via Goal
“I can’t open the present yet, we have to wait because we have to continue to talk,” the 1986 World Cup winner affirmed in declarations to radio La Red.
“I will choose the team, I will be the only one to do so. Of course I will be listening to Carlos (Bilardo) in everything, because you can’t avoid listening to a man who knows so much,” he added.
As many might know, the countries of Argentina and England don’t get along too well after the Falklands War in 1982 and that transcends over to soccer. Maradona, for some Argentinians, made up for the defeat in the Falklands by defeating England with the “hand of god” and the “goal of the century” during that game in Mexico in 1986.
The director of the film, Kusturica, highlights this point in his “Maradona” movie by making an animated version of the goal of the century(below) where Maradona flys by politicians like Maragret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and George Bush instead of English footballers.
The documentary additionally shows Maradona hanging out with American haters, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, and wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a blood-spattered US President George Bush on it.
Well isn’t that just lovely. Personally, I think Maradona’s head was already high enough up in the clouds to need another documentary.
There is no doubting the genius that Maradona was as a player. There is also no denying that however amazing he was on the field, he also had equally serious problems off the field. In a look at one of the greatest players of all time, Emir Kusturica has made a documentary on Maradona that was just shown at Cannes. Apparently there isn’t a whole lot of footage of him playing, but a lot chatting with him about his life. It also appears that this documentary first started being shot in 2005 when Diego was bloated and having some serious drug problems. I’m hoping this one gets released here in the US.
There will never be a doubt in anyone’s mind that Maradona was one of the best showmen in the game and he’s still got a little left in the tank, although he needs to work on his flop.
He may not be as fit like he once was in this video, but Diego Maradona was at Chelsea’s practice this morning, ahead of it’s Premiership match against Reading. Who knew that he and Avram Grant were friends and by the way, nice motivation tool.
