Diego MARADONA spoke with the media on his birthday and here are the most important bits of what he said.
On whether he'll try to bring MESSI to Scotland for the friendly match in November:
"We will honour the deal the AFA has with Barcelona and if MESSI is not allowed to play in my first friendly, then so be it. Barcelona's president was a gentleman when he allowed MESSI to play in Beijing and if there's an agreement between him and GRONDONA, we will respect it."
"The important thing everyone needs to think about is that MESSI is doing and has always done everything in his power to play for Argentina and everybody should have that in mind. It's very very important."
On his debut being set for the friendly against Scotland at Hampdem Park:
"I'm happy because I'm going to make my debut as an international manager in the place where I scored my first international goal (2 June, 1979 in a friendly against Scotland) and also because I know I'm adored in Scotland. I know they have a rivalry with England and they celebrated when we beat them in 1986. I hope the fans and everyone there in Scotland will treat us well and receive us with open arms."
On his plans for the next few days:
"We had some meeting planned for today but the death of Pedro POMPILIO (Boca Juniors' president) has changed the agenda and we will have those meetings tomorrow. We will do some fine-tuning with GRONDONA and then I want to go to England on Saturday and have meetings with MASCHERANO and TEVEZ because I want to start talking to all my players as soon as possible."
On his 48th birthday:
"I didn't expect my 48th birthday to find me in such a great moment. I'm very happy and I'm in peace with myself and my family. I'm waiting for my first grandson to arrive and I'm the manager of Argentina. What more could I've ever dreamed of? I want to thank all my fans and everyone in general for all their support and their wishes."
Some things that are impossible to express with words or with this simple transcription and translation of his quotes from today:
ReplyDelete1. Diego looks calmed. He doesn't have that volatility that was always there in the past. You know what I mean. Diego seemed to be on the edge all the time. Like being close to lose his temper if he didn't like the question or stuff like that.
2. He said: "I'm sad for the loss of Pedro POMPILIO. We had our disagreements in the past but he was a good man and he gave Boca Juniors and football in general a lot of things. I didn't want to talk today but seeing that you (the journalists) are here doing your work, I decided to come to talk to you for a few minutes"
WHAT??? Is that really Diego? Well...you better believe it, because I saw him on TV and I heard him talking like that.
Here's hoping this is something that will last forever!
I'm so happy to see him like this. Diego...I hope you prove all your critics wrong! I really do.
I don't know if you'll take us to win the World Cup, but proven managers in the past were unable to do it and therefore, if you don't do it but give us an entertaining ride, then you'd have achieved a great success.
And this goes for those in the media that were already speculating with Diego starting a fight with Barcelona because he wouldn't want MESSI to miss out on his managerial debut in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, BATISTA seems to move closer to join Diego's staff AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that apparently he will be granted his wish and he will continue to work with the Youth teams, while he will join Diego's staff to work closely with him and José Luis BROWN with the full national team.
It is still unofficial but it seems it'll be like that.
The announcement of MARADONA's official appointment as National Team manager will come on Tuesday and maybe the dust surrounding who'll be part of the coaching staff will settle by now.
For now, we just need to wait.
Are the excerpts here representative or did he pretty much only talk aobut himself? There are so many "Is" in his statements, maybe I'm looking too much into it but it seems like it is the Maradona of old where he is all about himself, not the team. I hope I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteAlejandro, this was a transcription I made after hearing him on the TV. There may be a few words missing here and there, but the context is pretty accurate.
ReplyDeleteHe only answer to four or five questions in what looked to be his house's door.
To be honest, he was asked a lot of questions that were only directed at him.
He started to leave when they ask him about MESSI and the agreement the AFA has with Barcelona and he stayed there to give, what I think was a great answer.
The next question was about his initial plans for the team but he was already walking towards his home.
Also...I don't think it would be a good idea for him to start discussing things about the team. Remember that he wasn't appointed officially yet.
Regarding comment on Maradona's newfound poise : Hell, even reading his answer about honoring the agreement with Barcelona made me think "Is this Maradona?" So I can understand the way you must've thought getting answers from him in person.
ReplyDeleteAlso, waiting to see some of your excellent NBA coverage. Luis Scola had a hell of an opening night for the Rockets (12 pts, 13 rebs). He's too good not to play, and hopefully Rick Adelman isn't playing him just because Shane Battier is out.
Hell yeah! That was a good answer from Diego. It seems like he has learned the art on how to tackle the media with perfection. After all he has been there and done that as a player, and was doing it all this time.
ReplyDeleteAt least, he is giving MESSI a little bit of space for himself and will use those moments to give other players a shot. I’m happy to hear that. The boy needs a break so lets leave him to concentrate on his football with Barca.
I’m happy to know that Diego has already planned to meet the players but from what I’ve been reading, he has often singled out MASCHERANO and TEVEZ. Any reasons for this?
VJ Rabid, Luis SCOLA was amazing in the Rockets win over the Grizzlies. It looks like Rick ADELMAN has the best starting five for his team this time by teaming up SCOLA with YAO, McGRADY, ALSTON & ARTEST. Seems to me like this could be a championship pedigree combination. But it is still too early to predict, we will see how things goes.
Also, Walter HERRMANN too had a great night for the Pistons, coming from the bench to post 10 points.
I will start to post on the NBA coverage but it’s just that right now there is too much of ongoing news regarding on our football team. But don’t worry; I’ve always been keeping an eye on our players in the NBA.
Maybe Diego had really grown out of his old temperamental, bullet-train ready to go off the track at any given moment of his. I hope he'd stay like this. He's gonna be a granddad for god sake. Hope the good feeling I'm starting to have after reading this will stay on. One thing I'm sure about is Diego WILL bring and plant that winning mentality back into his boys. Definitely. If Diego can't do it, nobody can.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the news seba and john. I know that this blog has the fastest English translation that I can get.
Thanks for the compliment Andaman, really appreciate that. We just have to be optomist about all this and stay true to our team no matter what.
ReplyDeleteHey Rabid, guess what! The Rockets won again this time in the Texas derby against the Dallas Mavericks by 112-102.
SCOLA only had 7 points & 4 rebounds to his credit.
Tomorrow the Chicago Bulls will take on the defending champion, Boston Celtic. Should be an interesting game to see.
With the weekend coming ahead, hopefully we'll have plenty of Albiceleste stories to talk about.
Hey there, I've got something important to share with you.
ReplyDeletePlease check out the following link, which was written by my friend name Rizal Hashim here in Malaysia.
http://rizalhashim.blogspot.com/2008/10/el-diego-or-el-loco.html
Most importantly, please check out the picture on that article. Something which I've been dying to tell you guys but just never knew how...
What a great rare picture! That's collectible stuff!
ReplyDeleteJust how many lives have MARADONA lived? He's 48 but he's got more stories than any 99 year-old in the world! Isn't he?
Nice article by Rizal! Especially this part: "Pele was smart. He stayed away from the bench so that he could dish out criticisms at people and consistently come up with wrong predictions!"
PELE is the worst predictor EVER! People in Brazil get happy when he predicts a defeat for them or for the club they support. That says it all!