Diego Armando Maradona

Diego Maradona is Still Alive

This story came completely out of left field, I still can’t believe it. Diego Maradona, the now corpulent Argentina footballing legend has been offered the role to coach (COACH!) the national side after the previous coach resigned following a shock loss to Chile in World Cup qualifying. The 47 year old has had many spells of drug, alcohol, and (created just for this post) food abuse since his ban from international competition after violating a drug test, and this would be his 3rd stint with the side. Via the BBC:

The 1986 World Cup-winning skipper held talks with the Argentina Football Association (AFA) on Tuesday and is set to continue discussions on Wednesday.

The 47-year-old said: “The offer attracted me a lot. As soon as it is confirmed I will start working.”

Maradona has had only two brief spells as a coach in Argentina.

If Maradona does take over he will succeed Alfio Basile, who resigned earlier this month after a World Cup qualifying defeat to Chile.

He was quoted as saying: “The idea is to start working immediately after the official announcement with the players who are in Argentina and then take the first plane to talk to the ones in Europe.”

BBC Sport’s South American football reporter Tim Vickery said: “This is all coming from Maradona.

“There is no official word from the AFA yet so it’s still early days. But the tide seems to be blowing in his direction.

The next match for Argentina is against Venezuela in March of 2009, they currently sit 3rd in the table, the top 4 automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup. I don’t know, this has makings of trainwreck, but good luck to him.