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Maradona to replace Argentina coach?
Diego Maradona could be an assistant coach of Argentina following the stunning esignation of Alfio Basile.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: October 18, 2008 05:14 PM IST
Read Time:3 min
Buenos Aires:
Basile, the coach since 2006, quit late on Thursday for personal reasons he's yet to make public.
Argentina's next match is a friendly on November 19 against Scotland and potential replacements as manager include national youth coach Sergio Batista, who guided Argentina to Olympic gold in Beijing, River Plate's Diego Simeone and San Lorenzo's Miguel Angel Russo.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986 and final in 1990, made it known a week ago he would accept the chance to work alongside his friend Batista.
Maradona was an official sidekick for Batista during the Beijing Games, trying to boost team morale in the locker room with anecdotes of his glorious past and playing cards with Lionel Messi and his daughter's boyfriend, Atletico de Madrid's Sergio Aguero.
"It's always nice to be a candidate for the national team," Batista told "90 minutos de futbol" on Fox Sports.
Asked what would happen if Maradona was coach and Batista his adviser, Batista said, "If Diego is chosen, he knows that he will have not only my support, but the support of all of those on the technical team."
On Friday, an unknown group of people plastered the front of the Argentine Football Association headquarters with posters lobbying for a Maradona-Batista regime.
"Maradona and Batista for the national team, to once again be champions," one of the posters read.
AFA president Julio Grondona, however, has hinted he prefers Maradona in the stands rather than on the field.
Basile resigned a day after Argentina's first loss to Chile in World Cup qualifying.
Argentina beat Uruguay last Saturday, but that ended a five-match winless streak in qualifying. Even so, Argentina remained third on goal difference in the 10-team South American standings.
"We didn't do anything, we didn't even know what we were playing," Messi said after the Chile loss, before heading back to play for FC Barcelona.
The statement was widely repeated by local media, and served as one of the final kicks in the side for Basile -implying the coach wasn't providing enough strategy for the team, or wasn't explaining himself clearly enough.
Messi changed his tone on Friday after Basile resigned.
"When things don't go well, it's best to make some changes," he told Buenos Aires-based television station TodoNoticias.
Leading daily Clarin said on Friday that Basile was sick of putting up with rude comments from various players, which he had tried to brush off for the past several months, while sports daily Ole reported that many players made fun of Basile's infamous superstitions - including making bull horns with his fingers when an opponent attacked on the field or scattering talcum powder during a game for good luck.
It seems that Messi, Aguera and others - accustomed to the professionalism of their European clubs - found it hard to take Basile's superstitions seriously.
Diego Maradona could be an assistant coach of Argentina following the stunning esignation of Alfio Basile.Basile, the coach since 2006, quit late on Thursday for personal reasons he's yet to make public.
Argentina's next match is a friendly on November 19 against Scotland and potential replacements as manager include national youth coach Sergio Batista, who guided Argentina to Olympic gold in Beijing, River Plate's Diego Simeone and San Lorenzo's Miguel Angel Russo.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986 and final in 1990, made it known a week ago he would accept the chance to work alongside his friend Batista.
Maradona was an official sidekick for Batista during the Beijing Games, trying to boost team morale in the locker room with anecdotes of his glorious past and playing cards with Lionel Messi and his daughter's boyfriend, Atletico de Madrid's Sergio Aguero.
"It's always nice to be a candidate for the national team," Batista told "90 minutos de futbol" on Fox Sports.
Asked what would happen if Maradona was coach and Batista his adviser, Batista said, "If Diego is chosen, he knows that he will have not only my support, but the support of all of those on the technical team."
On Friday, an unknown group of people plastered the front of the Argentine Football Association headquarters with posters lobbying for a Maradona-Batista regime.
"Maradona and Batista for the national team, to once again be champions," one of the posters read.
AFA president Julio Grondona, however, has hinted he prefers Maradona in the stands rather than on the field.
Basile resigned a day after Argentina's first loss to Chile in World Cup qualifying.
Argentina beat Uruguay last Saturday, but that ended a five-match winless streak in qualifying. Even so, Argentina remained third on goal difference in the 10-team South American standings.
"We didn't do anything, we didn't even know what we were playing," Messi said after the Chile loss, before heading back to play for FC Barcelona.
The statement was widely repeated by local media, and served as one of the final kicks in the side for Basile -implying the coach wasn't providing enough strategy for the team, or wasn't explaining himself clearly enough.
Messi changed his tone on Friday after Basile resigned.
"When things don't go well, it's best to make some changes," he told Buenos Aires-based television station TodoNoticias.
Leading daily Clarin said on Friday that Basile was sick of putting up with rude comments from various players, which he had tried to brush off for the past several months, while sports daily Ole reported that many players made fun of Basile's infamous superstitions - including making bull horns with his fingers when an opponent attacked on the field or scattering talcum powder during a game for good luck.
It seems that Messi, Aguera and others - accustomed to the professionalism of their European clubs - found it hard to take Basile's superstitions seriously.
Topics mentioned in this article
Football
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