Blackburn’s new owners want Diego Maradona to replace Sam Allardyce. The Rao brothers hope to attract a big name to their new club as a way of promoting their Indian poultry company worldwide. “Maradona is seen as the right profile for the VH Group. He could be offered the manager’s job, the general manager’s job or even technical director,” said a club insider.
As part of its King Diego Finale i soccer boots launch campaign and in celebration of Diego Maradona’s recent 50th birthday, PUMA has released a compilation video highlighting the wee man’s ball juggling skills throughout the years. The video ends with recent video of the Argentina and Napoli legend showing that he’s still got some freestyle tricks left in his bag.
Diego Maradona wants a job in the Premier League for his 50th birthday. The Argentine legend admits he’s been talking to Kevin Keegan about life at the top in England and is eager to get back into work. “The only problem is all the teams I like in England have good coaches. If any important job comes along I will accept it. I was looking at Arsenal and Chelsea,” said Maradona.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Maradona is out as Argentina’s soccer coach.
The Argentine Football Association said Tuesday it would not renew his contract. He had spent an erratic 21 months in charge of a national team that was eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals with a 4-0 loss to Germany.
The federation had offered Maradona a four-year contract to continue through the 2014 World Cup. But Maradona said he would stay only if his entire staff remained.
That was unacceptable to Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona. He had asked for several assistants to be replaced. One of them is Maradona’s close friend Alejandro Mancuso. The federation’s executive committee sided with Grondona.
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.
The whole football world is going Lego crazy, it seems. The Guardian is plugging Lego football on its home page, and we’ve featured a couple of vids too.
Here’s the latest effort, a recreation of Diego Maradona and the infamous Hand of God from 1986, complete with NSFW swearing…
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!
Over the past few weeks Barcelona‘sLionel Messi has stunned the soccer world with some of the most superlative performances people have ever seen — relentlessly bettering himself and his team and enhancing the game itself.
With the World Cup fast approaching, the question around the globe is whether Messi will be as masterful with Argentina as he’s been with Barcelona. Inevitably, comparisons with his countryman and international managerDiego Maradonahave hogged the debate.
Here’s the rub: Maybe the question shouldn’t be, Is Messi as good as Maradona, but rather, Was Maradona as good as Messi?
Messi will turn 23 in June, and he has already accomplished more than Maradona had at his age. As Barcelona’sSportnewspaper pointed out, comparing the two players, Messi has won 12 titles, 10 with Barcelona and two with Argentina. Maradona, at the same stage in his career, had only two: one with Boca Juniors and one with Argentina.
And although Maradona made his debut in the first division of professional club football (10 days before his 16th birthday) and in Argentina’s national side at a slightly younger age than Messi (who was 16 years old, 145 days when debuting for Barça), Messi was younger than Maradona in his first World Cup appearance.
Messi played a deciding role in the youth World Cup of Holland 2005 (a year before his first World Cup, just as Maradona excelled in the 1979 Youth World Cup in Japan before his 1982 World Cup). Messi was also the shining star of the gold medal Olympic squad in Beijing, making a very public and strong personal stance to play against the wishes of employer club Barcelona. And he was at times mesmerizing in the 2007 Copa America, reaching the finals in superb synchronicity withJuan Roman Riquelme, just before Argentina started to become enigmatically underachieving.
Yet until last week Messi had been the target of criticism in his native country. Fans and the press blamed Messi for Argentina’s struggle to qualify for the World Cup finals. The facts that he left the country at a young age, never playing professional club football in Argentina and lacks the demeanor of Maradona (outgoing, feisty, a natural leader) also exposed Messi to harshness.
Maradona as manager did not appease the situation but rather fed it. His comments on Messi — “He is not playing as well as I would like,” for example — contrast starkly with remarks by Barça’sPep Guardiolaafter below-par Messi performances. “He can have as many bad games as he wants,” Guardiola has said. “He will still be Messi.”
Then, after Messi scored a Champions League record-tying four goals against Arsenal on April 5, Argentina changed its tune. Messi’s goals were on a loop in practically every screen in Buenos Aires. Every football chat show on every media — and that’s a lot of shows — discussed in detail the genius of a man the nation now proudly claimed as one of its own.
“Messi is the best in the world in the national team and in Barcelona and he knows it,” ex-national teammate Riquelme said last week inPagina 12. “The difference is that [in Barcelona] there are always five or six options of passes to him, which makes him impossible to mark.”
The tactical analysis of Barcelona’s system has been a hot topic with newly appointed River Plate managerAngel Cappawho is known as “Tiki Tiki” for the high regard in which he holds a game of many touches and passes. “He [Messi] has Argentine roots but is a universal player. Like [Jorge Luis]Borges, he transcends the barriers of nationality” Cappa said inEl Comericio, adding that the Barcelona team works in harmony. “No one is the conductor, they all play one or two touches. They all share the same football philosophy and Messi adds his brilliance.”
There followed another splendid Messi performance, including an early goal, against Barcelona’s archrivals and close contenders for first place in La Liga, Real Madrid. Headlines said that Messie was “Out of This Planet” and that he had “EclipsedCristiano Ronaldo”
The greats started chiming in. “First they have to decide who is the best Argentinean,”Pelesaid. “And then they will have to score 1,000 goals before they can be compared to me.” AddedJohan Cruyff: “Pele was a hero, so was I. Now it’s [Messi's] turn.”
Mario Kempes, Golden Boot and World Cup winner for Argentina in 1978, has characteristically been the voice of reason. “He’s a human being, a football player. Anyone can shadow him, mark him, or stop him” said Kempes toEFE. “What he has achieved with Barcelona this season is remarkable, but he still seeks the cherry on the cake which would be the World Cup.” Kempes went on to stress the importance of team work, saying Messi cannot do this alone: “A squad is made up of a group of players, and it’s the group that has to take the team forward. This is something Maradona will have to work on.”
That’s why the onus is now on Maradona to shift whatever needs shifting within his star-studded squad and to ensure that he finds the right players to deliver those perfect passes to Messi. Maradona needs to inspire the talented Argentinian team to rise and match Messi’s own absurdly high standard. So maybe the real question of the World Cup is: Can Maradona the manager be good enough to let Messi shine?
Thanks Marcela Mora y Araujo for writing this amazing article.
