Maradona May Get His Mug On Money

March 26th, 2009 | by: chris |

What do you do with a known drug-addict, an admitted adulterer, a glutton, the provider of the sport’s greatest moment of cheating, a man of wildly controversial political views and one who serves as a laughing stock for many outside your country?

You put him on money, of course.

Argentina is considering putting El Diego on the face of some currency as a way to honor their national coach for his services to football and….late night television?

The irony is thick, too, as many in the newer generations will think of Diego more for his stupid comments, (formerly) bloated belly and cocaine addiction rather than his exploits as a fantastically gifted footballer. And what better way to honor one’s image of Diego than snorting coke through a rolled bill with his mug on the front? Could Diego resist that temptation?

No holes in this theory. None whatsoever. Nope.

According to the founder of the Circulo Filatelico and Numismatico de Santiago del Estero (a monetary organisation in Argentina), Juan Carlos Barron and Maradona could be appearing with the liberator of Argentina, San Martin, for tourism purposes.

As Dirty Tackle points out, the last time I looked at a bill and was so inspired by the historic face that I decided to book a vaca was…ummm…never.

The strangeness doesn’t stop there, as the competition is quite stiff, too:

Whilst Maradona’s inclusion is not certain yet, the Central Bank are known to be considering using writers, Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Nobel Prize winners, Luis Federico Leloir and Bernardo Houssay.

How, in the name of all that is holy, could they consider using Maradona in lieu of an esteemed writer or Nobel Prize winner? These cats actually contributed something to society. Maradona is, all his extracurricular shenanigans aside, just an athlete. A great one, but still just an athlete.

Then again, there may be more to this than meets the eye. Diego reportedly owes the Italian government a tidy sum in back taxes (like a tidy €30m), and one needn’t a wild imagination to see Maradona handing over a fresh stack equating to half the sum and saying, “it’s worth twice as much because it bears my face, see”.

Diego always was a cunning bastard, wasn’t he.

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Mat

Let’s see .. do you have an England bias.. the man’s a legend for Argentina no matter how much the media tries to portray the bad side of him
http://www.newells.theoffside.com Jeremy

While I do think that looking at Diego’s life as a whole, putting his face on money is a bad idea, sort of like, I don’t know, making him your National Team manager, stranger things have happened. I don’t get it.

But maybe we are underestimating his contribution to Argentine society. Maybe he hasn’t written good books or won Nobel prizes, but it’s hard to think of anyone whose identity is as intertwined with that of his country.

Pele may have been better, but there isn’t this Pele driven euphoria in Brazil that exists full-time like you see over Diego in Argentina.

And it’s a little scary at how natural that picture you used looks.
kris

Get over it ENGLAND!!!! You call it cheating what he did in 86 but your only world cup win in the 60s was won with a goal that never crossed the line talk about cheating, i would consider match fixing worse than a hand ball, go find the ref to call a cheat not maradona especially after the second goal he scored on you guys that counted as 3. I understand the hatred is so strong for DIEGO in England but really get over it your country will never produce anything besides robotic futbol players that all play the same. Imagine a player like Diego come out of england hmmmm?? exactly imagine because it will never happen. Go watch the 1990 world cup final and talk to me about cheating.