ARGENTINA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Maradona looks for revenge against Colombia in friendly between retired players

Record ID: 252388

  • Title: ARGENTINA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Maradona looks for revenge against Colombia in friendly between retired players
  • Date: 20th January 2011
  • Summary: PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MARADONA AT PRACTICE WITH ARGENTINE NATIONAL TEAM
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAD2X4G6OAOUO3S8BFWNAM7YU26
  • Story Text: Soccer legend and former Argentina coach Diego Maradona says he is looking forward to taking on another one of the game's all-time greatest players, Colombia's Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, in an indoor friendly pitting Argentina's retired players against some of Colombia's.
    When asked by a journalist, Maradona said the game is a chance at a rematch against Valderrama who led Colombia to an historic 5-0 win over Argentina in 1993 eliminating the soccer great and his team from the World Cup in the United States.
    "Is tomorrow's game some kind of rematch to the famous 5-0 match?" a journalist asked.
    "Yes, we see it like that. I remember being on the field and every time [retired Colombian soccer player Freddy] Rincon passed by the right, I said the son of a bitch; he was gazelle, it was impossible to stop him. And afterwards, [retired Colombian soccer player Faustino] Asprilla, who was like the young [French soccer player] Thierry Henry, he was like [Liberian soccer player and 1995 FIFA player of the year] George Weah, they were incredible they put it [the ball] wherever they wanted to. They made a huge goal, [on Sergio] Goycochea [former Argentine goalkeeper] in the corner. They were unstoppable," answered Maradona.
    Maradona coached the Argentine side through last year's World Cup in South Africa but was refused a new contract after being crushed 4-0 by Germany in the quarter-finals sending the team packing.
    Argentina last won the World Cup in 1986 when Maradona was captain and current Argentina coach Sergio 'Checho' Batista was a midfielder.
    Maradona says he has put his World Cup woes behind him.
    "The time for mourning has passed, and my daughters were busting my ass like crazy so that I would celebrate my 50th birthday and I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. Because I think we could have done better, but well, that's done, it's finished," Maradona said.
    Earlier this month the out-of-work coach said he would fly to London next month to study an offer from an English Premier League club that he did not name but sources close to him said was Fulham.
    The 50-year-old down played his travel plans saying he is going to Spain to see his daughter Gianina and grandson Benjamin and that he would later go to England, but not to meet with any teams.
    "I respect [English Football Club] Fulham's coach and I let him know that. I am not one of those guys that goes to the stands and hopes the team loses so I can be put on the bench [as coach]. I don't do those things because I wouldn't like anyone to do it to me at some point in my life. So, I will go to England because of prior commitments made some time ago. But I am not going to see any teams," Maradona said.
    Argentina's Lionel Messi won loud support from Maradona as well after he received the FIFA Ballon D'Or award for the best player in the world for the second year in a row.
    Maradona said the player he coached in South Africa deserved the award after beating out his Barcelona teammates, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez who came in second and third respectively.
    "If there were three balls, they would have given one to each, but there is just one, and the best guy got it. Let them get angry. I'd say Xavi plays by the book. But Messi makes goals. And Iniesta, I don't know how many games he played in the first part of the World Cup, he made a goal in the final and that's fine, he is a stupendous player, great, I'd want him on my team, but of the three I'd chose Messi 10 to 1. And for me it is OK, because though they [Spain] were the world champions, we have the best player in the world," he said.
    Maradona has been frustrated after not having his contract renewed as Argentina's national coach and at having been overlooked as coach for his beloved Buenos Aires team, Boca Juniors.
    He sounded off against FIFA President Joseph Blatter and FIFA vice president and Argentine Football Association, AFA, President Julio Grondona who selected Batista to replace Maradona to coach Argentina.
    "I don't need another family. I have my mom and dad, Diego Sr., they're very well, and this is my family along with my brothers. I don't want to part of the FIFA family; I don't want to be part of it. If I have to be educated to be part of the FIFA family, I want to be ignorant. Because Blatter, speaks of being educated, but next to him there is [Grondona] that was not educated at Harvard. So we close with this story. Messi has his education, my parents taught me; if I make it mistake it is mine. Blatter is the uneducated one who has never kicked a single ball and he is above all the players," Maradona said.
    The soccer legend will get the chance to leave some of his stress on the field on Wednesday (January 19) when he and Oscar Ruggeri, Alejandro Mancuso, Sergio Goycochea, Jose Luis Calderon, Ruben Capria, Roberto Trotta and Claudio Husain take on Valderrama, Jorge Bermudez, and Mauricio "Chicho" Serna, amongst others here in Mar del Plata.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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