Diego Maradona is Argentina’s folly
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The word out of Buenos Aires on Tuesday afternoon was that Argentina had selected Diego Armando Maradona to be its new national coach.
If true -- and there was no reason not to believe the early reports by cable television station Todo Noticias and the website of the respected newspaper Clarin -- Maradona would certainly set some soccer firsts.
He would, for instance, in all likelihood be the first national team coach to have fired a gun at reporters.
He would be the first national team coach to have been tossed out of a World Cup for failing a drug test.
He would be the first, at least from Argentina, to have regularly lambasted the foreign policy of the United States while fawning over Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
He would be the first to have blatantly cheated at a World Cup by illegally using his hand and afterward claiming it was ‘the Hand of God.’
He would be the first, or at least the first from Argentina, to have been pursued by Italian tax authorities for not meeting his obligations in that sphere, not to mention fathering a child by a women other than his wife while he was in Italy.
And he would be the first Argentina coach to have his son-in-law, Atletico Madrid forward Sergio Aguero, as one of his starting players.
If true, it is an astonishingly foolish move by Julio Grondona, the president of Argentina’s soccer federation. In fact, it smacks more of an attempt by Grondona to win some popular support among Argentina’s fans ...
than it does of a well-thought-out move for the good of the national team.
According to Todo Noticias and Clarin, Maradona will have Carlos Bilardo at his side to hold his pudgy hand and steer him along the way. Bilardo was Argentina’s coach in 1986, when Maradona and company won the World Cup in Mexico.
That, of course, was before the Maradona downward spiral that saw one of the world’s most accomplished players ruin his reputation through cocaine and alcohol abuse.
He is not the first to do that by a long shot, but the others were not elevated to a position in charge of one of the world’s finest national teams. George Best had drinking problems but never coached Northern Ireland. Gerd Mueller had drinking problems but never coached Germany.
Seven years ago, Germany named Christoph Daum as its national coach only to discover that Daum had used cocaine. The job offer was quickly withdrawn.
Argentina, it appears, does not operate by the same moral standards.
How long this marriage will last is debatable, but it certainly makes things interesting for the South Africa 2010 World Cup.
There will be more here as developments warrant.
-- Grahame L. Jones