Friday, 16 October 2009

Maradona - born entertainer

Argentina snuck through to the World Cup finals after a miserable, though a winning one, performance in Montevideo. This saw them just about stumble to fourth place in the South American qualifying group and a scarcely deserved place in the finals which Diego Maradona took as valediction for his methods. These methods, lest we forget, include starting training at 4pm because "Diego doesn't do mornings", picking 78 players in a year and none of them being his best defender Walter Samuel despite his team being comically unable to defend, the seemingly arbitrary recall for the ageing Martin Palermo and the complete emasculation of Lionel Messi - something which it takes a very special kind of talent to do.

Always gracious in victory, Maradona launched into a foul-mouthed rant against his critics in the press (i.e., the press). After telling assembled hacks that they all are on the receiving end of anal sex - and I don't think he meant it in a good way - he went all Malcolm Tucker with the brilliant line "All you who doubted me can fuck off and keep fucking off".

Some weeks ago, I suggested he be sacked for the good of Argentina. I completely withdraw that, for who am I to deny this entertainer a world stage on which to launch invective at all and sundry and come up with some other stunt that is batshit crazy? Given his chequered past, his efforts to out-crazy himself are Herculean. In fact, he's the Sergei Bubka of craziness, each time edging that bar a centimetre higher. The finals should be worth it for Maradona alone.

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