Diego Maradona to Sign a New Contract as Argentina Coach

Diego Maradona is going to put his pen on a new four-year contract with Argentina football federation to remain the coach of Argentina national football team until the World Cup Football 2014.

Argentina suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Germany in the quarter final of this summer’s World Cup in South Africa. However, he successfully guided a struggling Argentina side to qualify for the World Cup finals after taking over from Alfio Basile last year.

Diego Maradona has recently said that he would love to continue his job with Argentina national football team, if Julio Grondona, the president of Argentina Football Federation, wants him to stay.

Grondona has also revealed that he would like Maradona to remain at the helm of the Argentina national team. However, Grondona is reportedly not happy with the Maradona’s backroom staff Oscar Ruggeri whom Grondona terms a ‘defensive coach’.

On the other hand, Maradona looks firm to continue working with Ruggeri and he is going to talk to Grondona on this issue. Maradona recently visited Venezuela to meet the country’s president Hugo Chavez.

Argentina started their World Cup campaign pretty well winning all the group stage matches with sheer ease. The South Americans then eased past Mexico in the round of 16, before suffering a shocking 4-0 defeat to Germany.

It was pretty much clear that Argentina’s defense and midfield were pretty weak, while their attacking line up featuring Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín and Carlos Tevez was one of the best in the tournament. So, Maradona now needs to focus more on the midfield and defense.

Zanetti, Cambiasso and Gago Left out of Argentina’s World Cup Squad

Diego Maradona once again created surprises by strange selection. Recently, he has declared Argentina’s 30-man provisional squad for the upcoming world cup. Surprisingly, Maradona did not include three players like Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Fernando Gago.

Javier Zanetti is one of the most experienced Argentine players currently active in international football. The Inter Milan defender has the experience of representing Argentina in two world cup tournaments. His Inter Milan team mate Esteban Cambiasso is another surprise exclusion who has been in excellent form this season for the Milan club. The midfielder helped Inter reach the Champions League final.

There were very few people who could think of Fernando Gago being left out of Argentina’s preliminary squad. The Real Madrid midfielder has been in good form with his club.

Since taking up the charge of Argentina national team last year, Diego Maradona surprised the world football with his bizarre selection. He called up many veteran players who had already seen their best with Argentina.

Diego Maradona: Do or Die Now

Perhaps it is the last chance for Diego Maradona. He is considered to be the greatest footballer of all time along with Pele and when he became the coach of Argentine national football team there was a lot of expectation among the supporters that under his influence some magic will happen. Now, they are thinking that the opposite has happened and Argentina is now facing the danger of getting eliminated from world cup 2010 in South Africa.

Diego Maradona has now come back to his country after taking a break in Italy. He stayed in Italy for two weeks and he lost some weights. So, now he is a better shape physically and let us see if he can inspire his players. Argentina is going to play against Peru next match at home. They are expected to win the match easily because Peru is the weakest team. Here I like to remind you that not only they have to win the match but they have to win the match with a huge margin to keep any hope of qualifying in the final of 2010 world cup football. 

Can Diego Maradona Turn Argentina around?

Do you have any doubt about the greatness of Diego Maradona in football? Do you have any question regarding Argentina’s status as a football powerhouse? If you have, then I am pretty sure that you are either a crazy fan of Brazil or have little knowledge about the history of football (pardon me, if I have offended you by saying so).

The fact is that Diego Maradona is considered as one of the two greatest football players alongside Brazilian great Pele. He has achieved a lot in his phenomenal career and singled handedly brought the 1986 world cup to Argentina.

However, now it seems that the answers of the two questions I mentioned earlier could be true to some extent. You know that Maradona is the current coach of Argentina national team, but under the inspirational Maradona, Argentina has not been in good form recently, and is facing a threat of missing out a place in next year’s world cup finals in South Africa.

Argentina has lost three of their last four qualifying matches, and thus, standing in the fourth place in the point table with an advantage of just 2 points over the fifth and sixth placed teams. In this situation, Argentina is going to face Paraguay on 9 September with the intention of a victory. Argentina’s defeat to Paraguay could see the Latin American giants slip to the sixth place with just two matches in hand.

It is true that Maradona’s greatness as a footballer would never be questioned, but as a coach, he has got to do a very challenging task now and that is to guide Argentina to reach the world cup 2010 finals. Now, let us see if Maradona, who is always known for his never-give-up mentality, could turn Argentina around ahead of the Paraguay match.

Diego Maradona is New Coach of Argentina Football Team

Former Argentine football great Diego Maradona has been named as the new coach of Argentina national football team recently. The legendary figure of world football repeatedly expressed his desire to coach Argentina national football team in the past. Since Alfio Basile, the outgoing coach of Argentina, stepped down from the coaching job of the national side on 16 October, there was a rumor in world media that Maradona might be appointed as the new coach of the Argentine team.

The rumor has turned into truth recently when Argentina Football Association (AFA) announced the news of Maradona’s appointment as the new coach of national team. The formal announcement will come on November 4 in the official website of AFA. Maradona will get his former coach Carlos Bilardo beside him as Bilardo has been appointed as the director of national team. Interestingly, Carlos Bilardo was the coach of 1986 World Cup winning Argentine team which was led by Maradona himself. Argentina Football Association President Julio Grondona also confirmed the news of Maradona’s appointment at the helm of Argentina national football team.

Bloomberg reported:

``Diego Maradona is number one and Bilardo is the director of the national sides,'' Grondona told radio station La Red today.

The federation said on its Web site that it will formally announce the new coach on Nov. 4.

Diego Maradone is considered as one of greatest football players of all time. The football legend almost single-handedly led Argentina to win the 1986 world cup. Four years later he led Argentina to reach the final of 1990 world cup. However, his glorious career came to an unexpected end when he was tested positive in drug test during 1994 world cup tournament. Alike international football, he had a successful career in club football too. He achieved lots of success while playing for Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli. In his post-retirement life, he went through a bad phase of time cursed by drug addiction and undisciplined lifestyle. However, he got over all those things and now leads a normal life.

Lionel Messi, who is considered to be new generation Maradona of Argentine football, has recently said that he is not worried about Maradona becoming the national team coach. The current Barcelona star was earlier criticized by Maradona for being selfish. However, Messi does not think Maradona becoming coach of Argentine national team will be a problem for him.

Guardian reported:

"They were things that were said on the spur of the moment. I know that Diego appreciates me and I don't hold a grudge," Barcelona's Messi told Wednesday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

"There will be no problem. He is a great. I admire him for what he has given to Argentinian soccer. I am optimistic. The generation that won the Beijing Olympics is up and coming.

Carlos Bilardo is also happy to be able to work with Maradona once again. He said that Maradona would decide the team tactics and they would work together. He said:

Under their new working set-up, Maradona would decide tactics for each game, Bilardo said:

``Things are going good,'' Bilardo said in an interview with radio station Radio 10. ``But we have to keep talking.''

Diego Maradona’s first assignment as Argentina coach is expected to be the friendly match against France in Marseille on February 11, 2009. Argentina has a scheduled friendly match against Scotland in November, but AFA decided that the Scotland friendly would be handled by Sergio Batista, Maradona’s teammate of 1986 world cup winning team.

Italy’s 2006 world cup wining coach, Marcello Lippi, also thinks Maradona could be a charismatic coach for Argentina national team, despite his lack of coaching experience. Lippi thinks, Argentine players will listen to Maradona because of his charisma. Former president of Napoli, Corrado Ferlaino, also appreciated the move of AFA by appointing Deigo Maradona as the national team coach. However, there are many who are skeptical about his success with Argentina national team coach. Some even also indicate his indiscipline lifestyle that about to caused his death too. Maradona only has coaching experience of only 6 months at the club level. In early 90’s, he coached Mandiyú de Corrientes and Racing Club de Avellaneda for a short spell.

Well, as a player he earned so many accolades and showed so much charisma that the expectation level of the Argentine football fans will be high from Deigo Maradona. Now, let us see if the legendary figure of world football can turn the pressure into inspiration and bring back the golden days of Argentine football in his newly found role.