He scored a goal in a World Cup semifinal with his hand and was kicked out of another World Cup for a positive drug test. He has battled longtime cocaine and weight problems. He's been linked to the Mafia and allegedly still owes millions of dollars in back taxes in Italy.
He suffered a heart attack in 2004 from an apparent cocaine overdose and spent 10 days in intensive care. He had his stomach stapled in 2005 in Colombia. He was on his death bed again in 2007 with alcohol-induced hepatitis.
He pals around with Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and he told Venezuelan TV: “I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.” Several countries refuse him entry.
He once fired an air pistol at journalists and received a two-year suspended sentence.
He's also the new national soccer coach of Argentina.
The AFA, Argentina's soccer federation, made it official yesterday. Diego Armando Maradona, 48, is national coach. There had been reports for a week that Maradona would replace Alfio Basile, who resigned last month after Argentina lost to Chile and dropped to third place in South American qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, but it seemed so surreal, so implausible that it took an afternoon news conference in Buenos Aires to confirm it beyond a reasonable doubt.
There was Maradona, in a dark suit and tie, sitting between federation head Julio Grondona and technical secretary Carlos Bilardo, saying: “The one thing I am not is nervous. I am calm. . . . I'm not afraid of losing my crown. We have had a mini-crisis, and I would be a coward if I did not take this on.”
His coaching résumé looks like this: Two short stints at Argentine clubs more than a decade ago, at Mandiyu in 1994 and Racing Club in 1995, lasting a total of 23 games and resulting in three victories.
But details like that don't matter when you're Diego Maradona in Argentina, or Michel Platini in France, or Hugo Sanchez in Mexico. It is in the fine print of greatness, the part no one bothers to read. The deal is, you get an iconic soccer player who does your nation proud and ranks among the all-time legends of the game – and in return, one day he'll want to be national coach.
It is Argentina's turn now.
France went through it with Platini, after his midfield genius led Les Bleus to semifinal appearances in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. He became national coach, and France failed to qualify for 1990.
Bulgaria went through it with Hristo Stoichkov, who gained god-like status in Sofia when he somehow led Bulgaria to the semis of the 1994 World Cup. He became coach of the national team in 2004, had two different captains refuse to play for him, failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup or 2008 European Championships, and stepped down.
More recently, Mexico went through it with Sanchez. He lasted 17 months, succumbing this past spring when El Tri failed to qualify for the Olympics out of a weak CONCACAF region.
Sometimes it works. Franz Beckenbauer coached Germany to a World Cup title in 1990, but he was a cerebral player – more organizer than creator – who relied less on sheer physical gifts than will and guile. And who, perhaps because of that, was better able to communicate with his players and comprehend the intricacies of the game's tactical side.
Sanchez, the story goes, once gathered his Mexico players and told them about a 1987 European Champions Cup game when he played for Spain's Real Madrid. The game was in early March, against Red Star Belgrade in then Yugoslavia, and it was played in sub-freezing temperatures.
Sanchez told his players how he just imagined he was on the beach in Acapulco and blocked out the cold, how he scored two goals that night and propelled Real Madrid into the next round. That was the extent of his pregame strategy session.
Sanchez's tale had such an impact on the Mexican players, most of whom weren't even born in 1987, that they promptly went out and lost. A few weeks later, Sanchez was gone.
Maradona's first game is a Nov. 19 friendly against Scotland in Glasgow, and already there is friction.
Some public opinion polls in Argentina are running three-to-one against Maradona's appointment, and to that end Grondona has attempted to surround the golden child with seasoned soccer minds. Bilardo, the coach of the victorious 1986 World Cup team, is the “technical secretary.” The assistants are Sergio Batista and Jose Luis Brown, the head and assistant coach from Argentina's gold-medal team at the Beijing Olympics.
But Maradona prefers buddies Oscar Ruggeri and Alejandro Mancuso as his chief assistants, saying at yesterday's news conference that “we still don't have it resolved.” And in case anyone is wondering who's really in charge, he added:
“What we're looking for with coaches is that they are made of iron, that they're ready to work and that they will accept orders from the No. 1 guy, which is me.”
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com
