Why I Want Diego Maradona to Succeed
Diego Maradona’s spell in charge of Argentina is not going well. The albiceleste are fifth in CONMEBOL qualifying right now, and could very well wind up in a playoff game vs the fourth place CONCACAF team for a World Cup 2010 spot. Or they could finish sixth and just be eliminated.
Understandably, Argentina fans are not happy. To quote Julian D from the Argentina blog “I’m just as angry and annoyed as anyone here about Maradona. I now also want him out.”
Rather than getting into whether El Diego should resign or be fired (neither looks like happening), I’ve been thinking about why I’d prefer to see him succeed. There are all kinds of reasons to dislike Maradona (Hand of God, etc) but I’d really much prefer to see him a) not get fired, and b) qualify for the World Cup with Argentina.
As I understand it, Maradona is a national institution in Argentina. As the greatest ever player in a football obsessed nation, how could he not be?
He’s the man who won the 1986 World Cup in glorious fashion, and that can’t ever be taken away from him. But failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup would go some way to tarnishing his achievements.
Not everyone (both inside and outside Argentina) approves of the way El Diego conducts himself. But until now that hadn’t mattered. He always had that legendary football career to bolster his reputation. No matter how many times Maradona fired an air rifle at reporters, he was still a footballing genius.
And though playing football and coaching football are two very different things, in terms of reputation it’s the same thing. So if Maradona fails to get Argentina to South Africa, then that will be one of the things he’s remembered for. There will be some younger Argentina fans for whom this is their Maradona memory, which would be a shame.
Of course, much of this is Maradona’s fault for thinking he was capable of coaching the Argentina national team. Even when his (very short) track record suggested otherwise. But from where I’m sitting, the Argentina FA are equally to blame. It was a shamelessly populist move from Julio Grondona and co, so they must share responsibility.
But mostly I want Maradona to succeed because it will make an excellent story next summer. Can you imagine? A Maradona-led Argentina team in South Africa will provide all kinds of highs, lows, drama and entertainment. I also suspect that the team has a better chance of performing under Maradona in a tournament situation, where it all plays out in one intense month, than over the course of a season. But unless Argentina qualify, we’ll never know.
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Comments
By Jose | September 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am 
“I also suspect that the team has a better chance of performing under Maradona in a tournament situation, where it all plays out in one intense month, than over the course of a season. But unless Argentina qualify, we’ll never know.”
THANK YOU. See, I’m not the only nut who suspects this.
By Chainsaw | September 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am Are you an Argentina fan?! If you are then probably you’re the only one beside Grondona that want him to stay! He’s been like a bad omen fell into Argentina. Everything is wrong with him. There is nothing right about him. He’s just a fucking retarded, fucked up in head because of all drugs he took in his life, beside his stubborness that he always had, makes him the worst coach in Argentina history!
Grondona is 10 times worse than him. Old fart that has nothing in his head. Always take wrong decision. He’s the first one to blame for all these loses over the years. Both him and Maradona should take a gun into their mouth adn shoot if Argentina fail to qualify to world cup.
Posted from 
Canada
By alessio | September 11th, 2009 at 10:11 am Daryl is English, so I can imagine he is not a Argentina fan.
Posted from 
United States
By Albo | September 11th, 2009 at 10:16 am Not even worth a comment…
Posted from United States
By Fernando | September 11th, 2009 at 10:40 am As far as I’m concerned he is getting his comeuppance… the 1986 World Cup was a mockery, with FIFA allowing that ridiculous simulated header by “El Diego”…. in 1990, he whines like a baby when they didn’t win the Final against West Germany.. 4 years later he takes the pitch high like a kite and still people write about him like he’s the second coming of Jesus, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Since then he’s always in the news for either doing drugs or the aftermath of that lifestyle, like when he had that heart attack a couple of years ago… Enough with Maradona. Thanks to him the world will never see Leo Messi play in South Africa.
Posted from United States
By Locoluis | September 11th, 2009 at 11:19 am Oh, yeah, I want him to fail. In fact, I want his pedestal to be broken and his godlike image to be crushed into pieces.
The sad thing is that he’s taking a whole country of football fans with him. Except Marcelo Bielsa, who will coach the national team of Chile at the World Cup.
Let the fandom die. He’s not a god anymore.
Posted from 
Chile
By wob | September 11th, 2009 at 11:19 am So we’ll maybe have a World Cup without Messi and C. Ronaldo…
Posted from 
Netherlands
By Ian | September 11th, 2009 at 11:56 am I want Argentina to succeed, but not Maradona. Amazing player, regardless of the Hand of God. But he has had his chance, and he has failed, regardless of how this finishes. The players he has on that team do not deserve to be a maybe-fifth-place qualifier. I hope Argentina is there in South Africa, with a new manager.
By john | September 11th, 2009 at 12:12 pm I was thinking the same thing, Ian. The ONLY reason I want Maradona to succeed is because I don’t want the World Cup to be without Messi, Aguero, Mascherano, Maxi, etc. And this coming from a die-hard Spain supporter, who doesn’t want Argentina to succeed… once they get to the cup.
By the by, I also feel the same way about Portugal. It’s not that I want these NTs to win the cup, I just want them to be part of the competition.
By fab | September 11th, 2009 at 12:46 pm if Maradona succeeds Argentina will field the worst team in world cup history
you have to understand..maradona picks players that are in there 30’s and play in the domestic league over higuein and other players who we would love to see in south Africa
the players must be 100% loyal to maradona….there is no Argentina team only his minions, years and years of praise and adoration of maradona in Argentina has led to an almost borderline insanity level of arrogance and ego…in interviews he only speaks about himself
Maradona is not from argentina either…he is from BOCA selecting only players that were or are a part of the recently unsuccessful boca juniors team and almost criminally overlooking many ex river players
the man is insane and as an argentine fan mark my words
ID RATHER HAVE US NOT QUALIFY AND MARADONA GET KICKED OUT…..THEN HAVE US GET EMBARRASSED ON THE WORLD STAGE
By fab | September 11th, 2009 at 12:48 pm PS if argentina do not make it ill be rooting for chile
cheers
By sandrahn | September 11th, 2009 at 12:52 pm Well I’m a Brazilian who has for a long time enjoyed and respected Argentine football and who holds the totally heretical view (in Brazil) that Maradona was in fact better than Pele (who I also respect and admire as a player).
I am NOT gloating over Argentina’s poor fortunes in qualifying and I too wish Maradona would succeed, even tho I never believed he could make a good manager. I wanted him to prove all his doubters, incl. me, wrong. I think it would be absolutely fantastic if he succeeded with this team, he could then silence all his haters.
But the simple football fact is that attacking players rarely make good managers. As players they simply never need to have the vision of the game that defenders do. It’s also very difficult to find examples of big name players going on to become good managers. Plus, Maradona has little to no experience in managing a football team.
It’s a shame, I don’t like to see Argentina struggle like this, they don’t deserve it. I don’t like the prospect of a world cup without them, without some of the sport’s finest players, players who embody so much of what I love about football. But I do believe they’ll pull themselves up and scrape thru. A country that still believes in playing the beautiful game should be respected and cheered on, not ridiculed.
And as to all endless fixation on Maradona’s personal flaws and mistakes, and his hand-of-god (get the hell over it, ffs!) — SO THE HELL WHAT? The guy’s got flaws, major flaws, you’d think he was the incarnation of Adolph Hitler the way some people talk about him. Never ceases to amaze me how people expect everyone who becomes world famous at a very young age to behave flawlessly and not give in to all the temptations and pressures that go with it. How would you do in his place?
And btw, qualifying campaigns are not always harbingers of a team’s performances at a tournament. There are so many examples of countries that struggled to get to the wc or the Euros or other tournaments and then surprised everyone by doing very well.
Which is why countries like Brazil, England, Holland and Spain should be wary. This is the first wc in Africa and it’s outside Europe, where Europeans do not do well at all.
Argentina could surprise us all. If so, I will be one Brazilian celebrating with them.
Posted from United States
By Chainsaw | September 12th, 2009 at 2:02 am The official site of Argentina federation was hacked by a group of hackers. They put a picture of Maradona with Brazil Jeresey there with a line under the pic “A picture worth a thousands words!”
There will be a meeting next week to diccuss Maradona and his board’s future. I don’t know why this old fart Grondona doesn’t finish it sooner.
Posted from 
Islamic Republic Of Iran
By Chat | September 13th, 2009 at 4:17 am tesekurler.
By Fernando | September 13th, 2009 at 9:29 am 86 was fixed in Maradona’s favor… pure and simple… the Hand of God goal is the smoking gun, but there were too many coincidences that cannot be ignored, anyone who doesn’t believe me should read “Soccer in Sun and Shadow” by Eduardo Galeano… it’s not just blind rhetoric but a convincing almost cautionary tale about FIFA fixing the World Cup, elevating Mexico to what it is today and the Mafia practices employed by FIFA.
Posted from United States
By Shadi | September 14th, 2009 at 10:14 am you forgot the best reason ,more south American wags and fans
By orgs | September 14th, 2009 at 10:24 am sandrahn – how refreshing to read.
By Fernando | September 14th, 2009 at 1:10 pm El Diego has flown under the cover of night to the Old World, his intentions are unknown… is he going to meet with his Napoli drug connections or is he actually going to take a look at Diego Milito… the world may never know.
Posted from United States
By Daniel | September 27th, 2009 at 3:01 pm I don’t see how Argentina would succeed with Maradona as coach. Even if the country qualifies, in a world cup it may face countries like Germany, Italy, Spain, and Brazil. I can’t imagine how Maradona, with his limitations as coach, will lead Argentia to success against any of those countries. Argentina, with the quality of its players should be at the level of Brazil, perhaps even better because player for player Argentina is a likely better team today. The Argentinian flaw shows the importance of a good coach: An adequate coach can make a team better while a better team can be bad with an inadequate coach. Even if Argentina qualifies, the team will do a bad tournament with Maradona as coach.
Concerning “the hand of God” expression, I do not give it any importance. “Hands of God” have happened many times in soccer and no one has made a great number of it. But we have to remember that it was against an English team, and the English are very good to find excusses when they lose. Argentina was better than England in 1986 and would win the match anyway.
By Daniel | September 27th, 2009 at 3:29 pm Fernando, when you say that “86 was fixed in Maradona’s favor” you should present evidence. Otherwise, your assumption lose credibility. The reality is that Argentina won the tournament with a brilliant Maradona. Since then, he surged as perhaps as good as Pele.
Mexico arranged the 86 world cup because Colombia, which was the arranger withdrew due to economic reasons and no other Latin American country had the economy to arrange the tournament at that time. Mexico was a solution to a problem but it was not imposed by Fifa. The circumstances made Mexico arranger. On the other hand, you are right in some ways because before that tournament baseball was the preferred Mexican sport. The 1970 and 1986 tournaments arranged by Mexico changed the predilection of the Mexicans. Today, soccer is number one among Mexicans. Baseball is now number seven.
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