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Maradona – Potty Mouthed Conspiracy Theorist
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There was a time when the names Diego Armando Maradona, Carlos Bilardo and the Argentine National team were synonymous with success. The magical run to the 1986 World Cup made both men house hold names in the sport, and heroes back home.
Boy, does that seem like a life time ago.
Today, Maradona has caused more Argentine headaches then the English fans had after the Hand of God goal. The team struggled mightily in World Cup qualifying, to the point where Argentina needed to win both of their remaining games against Peru and Uruguay in order to secure a spot.
The first game against Peru was shockingly close, but a last gasp, hail mary of a cross found a head in Martin Palermo to seal the game. In typical dignified fashion, Maradona celebrated the only way he knew how; using the wet pitch as his own personal slip and slide, taking a belly flop like an Antarctic penguin. Think about that for a second; a huge celebration for a win . . . against Peru. That is how far the Argentine Nats have fallen.
But that was only the beginning of this *ahem* colorful characters antics. After securing the victory against Uruguay in another less than inspiring show, Maradona gave his greatest performance of all with wonderful quotes like these:
“I never forget. To those who didn’t believe, with apologies to the ladies, they can suck it. They can keep sucking it. I’m either black or white – I’ll never be gray in my life. You people who treated me like you did? Keep licking it. Now, next question?”
“Eh, you have it inside you too” – in response to another reporters question
That was enough to catch the ire of FIFA head Sepp Blatter, who has now begun an investigation of this childish tirade.
But Diego wasn’t done!
Forever blameless for any of his wrong doings, Maradona has now traded in his managerial tracksuit for the cape and magnifying glass of a detective. He has uncovered a conspiracy – typically, against him and his boss – and he is revealing “the truth” to anyone who can hear him.
“There is a campaign against against Grondona here. Vila and Bilardo wanted to bring down Grondona,” Maradona said.
Vila is a well respected reporter out of Argentina. He has been trumpeting for the firing of Maradona since Argentina’s struggles began, pleading with AFA head Grondona to do the right thing. In Maradona’s mind, Vila’s unsuccessful bid to turn Grondona against him forced the reporter to find another ally to get his master plan done. That man? Carlos Bilardo. And why? Because Bilardo has aspirations of being the true Argentine head coach.
Of course.
You would figure that someone would tell this guy to just be quiet and lay low till 2010, but when you are used to being treated like a diety, such a request may be too much to ask for.
What are your thoughts on the latest from El Dios Maradona?
Cocaine is one hell of a drug.
It’s rare when someone makes Raymond Domenech look like a diplomat, but here is a candidate.
Still, his comments had me laughing for several minutes. Inappropriate, but it makes me wish I had been there to see that reporter’s face.
Posted from 
United States
im argentine…GET HIM THE HELL OUT
I don’t understand the fuss. This sounds perfectly consistent for a man whose most famous goal was a hand ball.
“This sounds perfectly consistent for a man whose most famous goal was a hand ball.”
excuse me, are we forgetting something? a certain goal where he dribbled the whole team? goal of the century perhaps?
I am Argie too, and a Boca fan, and this guy is driving me insane. Seriously. I mean, he is basically the stuff fables are made of as a footballer, but as a coach, he more closely resembles a steaming pile. I am sorry. I have never seen them play so misguided and uninspired in my 29 years of existence.
Maradona can “suck it.
There, someone had to say it.
Posted from 
United Kingdom
A huge part of me wants maradonna so out of coaching the team, after he made a hole world to see the great Argentina struggling for a spot to the world cup! But another part wants him to stay and really really hopes him to do well in the cup.. before coaching we used to talk about the legendary Maradonna the great, and getting kicked out now or loosing will make us just remember him as we do know, maradonna means as much as an insult now… I hope he will find a way to fix that from coming. And yes there is no grey line as he said, either you are a legend “a god of football” or you are the failure, the dissapointment to the whole sport and nation!
Nolan, yeah, who knew it could have such lasting effect, eh?
Seriously, who didn’t see this coming?
On the conspiracy front, I seem to recall a paranoid Argentine side. It was like watching Norman Bates play soccer.
Hope they can bounce back. There’s too much talent there to squander.
Posted from 
Canada
Ooops, should have mentioned at the 1990 World Cup about Argentina.
While I’m on it, “could have such A lasting effect.” Forgot a word.
Sorry. My proofreader is a drunk monkey.
Posted from Canada
That was freaking great interview!
Awesome.
If you ever read Argentine papers (im from Venezuela where the media can get away calling the president a monkey because of his dark skin so this is not your north american media were talking about) and the personal attacks on him, you would have done the same.
As for his failure as a coach, what’s your point?
This wasnt his team by the way, he was brought in after 10 games because of the mess Basile left, with infighting, backstabbing, primadonnas and the usual garbage.
Maradona had no experience but he had the name. The hope that he could recreate some magic out of a moribund team that looked out of place.
An experienced coach would not have had much more luck with this bunch.
So just like that game against Australia, the federation hoped that the spectre of Diego would make everyone forget the first 1.5 of this terrible campaign.
If he didnt succeed, then the press could eat Maradona for lunch.
If he succeeded to get them to the WC, then the legend would live on.
Sure, he still isnt a WC caliber coach but he got them there. Which brings me to the what’s your point.
All he has to do is get them past teh first stage and he will once again shut everyones traps.
If they suspend him, then FIFA makes him into a martyr and every game Argentina plays will be a circus with the Diego Not THere angles.
The ‘us vs them’ may be a tired sports cliche but it helps teams in turmoil gel and it worked here. Of course, Diego isnt a good enough coach to have done this on purpose but it worked.
Anyone who doubted him can suck him and then whine about it in blogs.
The legend has gotten bigger and the swearing episode will make the fans love him more. You might not like loud and uncouth but many people see him as a man of the people.
And ANY comments from the land of bad teeth, horsey royal familys and lukewarm beer hold the value of road apples.
Maradona is like a nightmare that football losing nation keeps reliving.
Its ok, not all your failures can be attributed to him, theres Becky’s skyward PK, his ejection, Rooney’s ejection, the fact that english players are rare in the EPL and plenty of others to blame for failure.
Posted from Canada
nestor, I have plenty of experience with the horror that is Latin American newspapers (Argentine papers might not be overtly racist like their Venezuelan or Peruvian counterparts, but they are basically all owned by one company) but come on, Maradona’s comments are embarassing Argentina and are not uniting the team, because he makes everything about him and will always put his ego above the well being of the national team. The team was in trouble before he arrived, but his complete tactical ineptitude and ego have only made things worse. Of course the true villain is Julio Grondona, who brought in Maradona to serve as a shield for his increasingly disastrous reign at the AFA, knowing that people will always defend El Diego no matter what he does. And Maradona is playing his part brilliantly, throwing Bilardo under the bus to make sure he and Grondona hold all the power.
Posted from Canada
Let’s not forget the whole crotch grabbing thing as well. Grondona is the problem with the AFA and with Diego. You can’t blame Diego for being Diego. When an entire nation bows at your shrine it can’t help but go to your head.
Grondona’s move with Diego was a shrewd one. Give Diego his chance and if he succeeds then Grondona was the one who made it happen. If he fails, then he gets rid of the one man who could probably unseat him at the AFA and has a built in excuse for failure “I hired Diego, what more do you want.” And while the circus was/is playing out, some of the heat on Grondona is cooled down.
His only interest is in Grondona, not the Argentine football scene. I’ll stop short of calling him corrupt (although I think he is, so I guess I just did call him that) and just say inept.
And if Argentina has become a team and/or nation that only expects it’s NT to make it out of the group stage, then expectations have fallen tremendously. The quarterfinals should be the starting point. From the midfield up they are ridiculously talented and part of their defense isn’t bad either.
I have to say that Diego has embarrased the Argentines quite a bit lately, but no one can deny that that’s who he is and he will act that way regardless of what people think. Did anyone expect him to change?? I am argentine, I have watched every world cup since 1978 (when I was still living there) and I was very sad that Argie might not make it to 2010. As much as I love soccer, I could not watch the WC with the same enthusiasm if Argie didnt make it. I hope Maradona brings it down a couple of notches in 2010 and I hope the team brings it up a lot…Argie has always had great players, I am on their side- I think they can pull it off!
Posted from United States
If Argentina wants any possibility of success at the World Cup next year, Maradona has to be dismissed. He has caused so much chaos to the Argentine team that it is unbelievable that he still is the coach. The man lacks any knowledge of soccer tactics, human treatment, and diplomacy. He is a shame for the talent of the Argentinian team. I wonder why he at all was selected coach. It is a pity that a nation tha produces some of the greatest soccer players does not have a quality coach.
I think Diego Maradona is a soccer legend with the nickname hand of god, he is a wonderful player in world football at the time.
Posted from 
Australia
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Maradona’s remarks to the journalists are obviously unacceptable, on more than one level. And I know a lot of Argentina fans are embarrassed of the way he conducts himself. Will be interesting to see if FIFA have the balls to punish him in some way (maybe they could ban belly slide celebrations for coaches?)
That said, I still get a feeling that his “everyone’s against us” siege mentality approach could pay off come tournament time, provided the players are behind him, and won’t be at all surprised if Argentina have a really good World Cup.