MARADONA: "This is more important than 1986"

TyC Sports had access to Diego MARADONA and they interviewed him. Newspaper Olé posted a couple of videos from that interview and Mundo Albiceleste gives you the translation to English.

Here is the first part of the video.

And here is the second one.

Enjoy it!

Diego MARADONA

On Lionel MESSI:

"Lionel MESSI knows he's got everything to play for. Everything to win. Everything to give Argentina happiness. The fact that he said: "Vamos Argentina, la concha de su madre" at the Camp Nou after they won the league, shows you how motivated and how focused he is to play a great World Cup with Argentina. He is willing to do whatever I ask him to do on the pitch. We woke up very early a few times to work on some set pieces with him and VERON."

On whether he is afraid of seeing how MESSI gets kicked by the opposition:

"I'm not scared of seeing him get kicked all over the pitch. It's FIFA who should be scared. Because you see four little boys enter the pitch with a yellow flag that's useless (Note: The Fair Play flag). FIFA should be scared because that fair play should really be visible in every game. We need people to go the stadium and watch the best players. They pay good money to see the main stars, who need to be protected."

On the players that stand out in training:

"MASCHERANO and VERON are a step ahead all my other players from what I see in training. Mentally, physically and tactically, those two should get a lot of respect. But Carlitos is the people's idol. If I have to choose one idol of the people, my pick is Carlitos. More than myself and more than MESSI. You can bet your life, people like TEVEZ more than me."

On his lineup for Saturday and the importance of Carlos TEVEZ for the team:

"I'm not going to reveal my lineup right now. Because this interview could reach Nigeria and we'll be in trouble if that happens. But I have realised that Carlitos cannot be out of the team. Not only for what he shows me all the time, but because he made it in England. To make it in England is not easy. He achieved great things with any shirt he wore. To use him in the position I'm using him and for him to track back and then get to the box anyway and then burn the net with his shots. He is a player that gives me goosebumps."

On Javier PASTORE:

"PASTORE is a diamond that we are polishing. He's only 21. I bet on him because I knew he would grow up being next to my other players. He is doing just that in every training session we have."

On whether he felt he was all alone with his players and against all the critics:

"I had a talk with my players. When everybody was criticizing us, I would go to Europe and talk to them. I knew we were going to have this moment for us. The moment we needed. To be together here in Pretoria. To talk what we need to talk. To make the decisions we need to make. To train how we have to train. We gave this players a complex that it's the envy of every other national team. The English, the Americans, the Germans all envy this place. That's what I wanted for my players."

On how he spent night after night working on the preliminary list and different tactics and formations on a piece of paper:

"You need to ask this question to my girlfriend. Because she would wake up every night and asked me: "What are you doing?". I would write players' names. I would think how this player could help in defence. How this other player could cover for another. If that guy could play next to MASCHERANO. If VERON can play on the right or be my playmaker. There are a million things I could tell you. It's like the man who starts playing golf and would wake up every day, grab the putter and start hitting ball after ball. I had to start drawing schemes. To build up lineups. To decide on 30 players and then on the final 23 to reach this point in which I have my team with me."

On whether South Africa 2010 is more important than Mexico 1986:

"Yes. It would be more important because 86 is in the past and this is new. All new things are more fascinating. To see MASCHERANO with the World Cup trophy in his hands is the dream I have deep inside. To see MESSI being the best player in the tournament. To see a very solid team. A team we're trying to find and we are finding in every training session we have."

On the importance of the players he has:

"I'm convinced that, being our national team manager, that we couldn't be able to do too much if the material we have to work with (Note: the players) is not good enough. But what we have is exquisite. So, everything that this team would achieve will belong to my players. They would bring joy to the people in Argentina. They would bring the cup to Argentina. They would leave everything to achieve that ultimate goal. They would leave their sacrifice, their blood. I'd be with my family enjoying. Make no mistake: managers like MENOTTI, BILARDO or MARADONA, come and go. The real winners are always the players."