Football great Diego Maradona played nearly his entire career in PUMA. The PUMA King Diego Finale commemorates our relationship with the man and the legend, and salutes him on his 50th birthday on October 30, 2010.

World superstar Diego Maradona has made a sensational bid to become the next manager of Aston Villa.
The controversial football legend is out of work after resigning as coach of Argentina last month.
Now his official European representative, Walter Soriano, has revealed Maradona wants to manage in England – by succeeding Martin O’Neill as boss of Villa.
(more…)

Diego Maradona will be offered a new four-year contract to stay on as Argentina coach, the Argentinian Football Association has announced.

AFA president Julio Grondona will meet with Maradona next week to offer him the chance to guide his nation to the Brazil 2014 World Cup after the AFA executive committee determined he remains the right man to command the national team after a respectable showing at the World Cup in South Africa.

Maradona had little coaching experience before taking Argentina on a roller-coaster ride to World Cup qualification. Few gave him any chance of turning his undoubtedly high-quality squad into World Cup contenders but they impressed on their way to the quarter-finals before being humbled 4-0 by Germany.

Grondona intends to meet with Maradona no later than next Wednesday to discuss the contract extension. Maradona said after his side’s exit that he would consult his family and the Argentina players before deciding whether he intended to stay on.

JOHANNESBURG(AP) Even though Lionel Messi baffled Nigeria’s defenders, Argentina still had to sweat out Diego Maradona’s first World Cup victory as a coach.

Gabriel Heinze scored on a diving header in the sixth minute, the only one of seven shots on goal Argentina converted in its 1-0 win Saturday.

Heinze took advantage of weak defense to power in his header from 12 yards off Juan Sebastian Veron’s corner kick. After that, it was nothing but missed chances for Albiceleste.

“The team made good moves, but we ended up suffering. That’s the law of soccer,” Maradona said. “Thank God we won the game.

“To begin a World Cup in winning fashion gives you a certain sense of calmness. The only thing that concerns me is that we won a big game.”

The Nigerians struggled for much of the match to contain Messi, and striker Gonzalo Higuain also failed to convert three good chances.

Critics say he rarely plays well for his country, but Messi – FIFA’s World Player of the Year – posed a threat to the Nigerians all day.

“I felt comfortable,” Messi said. “We knew that Argentina had to show its class and I think we did.”

After seeing Higuain miss on an early chance, Messi tried a solo effort two minutes later, forcing a flying, one-handed save from goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

Enyeama then leapt to thwart Messi after he cut in from the sideline and fired a curling strike.

“He was very close to the ball” at all times, Maradona said. “Soccer wouldn’t be beautiful without seeing Messi touch the ball.”

Enyeama tried to stay upbeat after turning in a great performance himself.

“We’re not going to kill ourselves. We have two more games to play,” he said. “We thank God the score was a little encouraging.”

The Argentines almost paid for their squandered chances, as the Nigerians gained confidence in the second half.

Taye Taiwo came inches from an equalizer with a low shot that flew just past Sergio Romero’s left post, and substitute Kalu Uche then scooped a weak shot over the crossbar from inside the box with eight minutes left.

“Of course, I’m very disappointed,” said Nigeria coach Lars Lagerback. “Unfortunately, there was a mistake from our side that created the corner kick. We were sleeping on one of the corners and that was enough. We were punished this time.”

A superstar as a player but a controversial choice as national team coach, Maradona prowled the sideline throughout the match, with hands clasped behind his back.

For the first time as Argentina coach, the former captain wore a suit – a stark contrast to the image of him hurling himself, track-suited, into a puddle on the field when Argentina beat Peru last year.

In the other Group B match, South Korea beat Greece 2-0.

Even Louis Vuitton is getting in on World Cup fever and they brought in all the big boys of football to prove it.

Maradona, Pelé and Zizou’s ad for Louis Vuitton Journeys has hit the web! Looks nice, huh? It was shot by Annie Leibovitz in Madrid (where apparently, Maradona kept Zizou and Pelé waiting for like 3 hours or something, of course!

That’s a lot of pressure on Leo Messi…