Pele Pans Managerial Misfit Maradona

This could be tricky. How do you tell Maradona, one of the most naturally talented footballers ever to grace the pitch that not only was he not the greatest the player ever, but he wasn’t even the greatest Argentine?

Easy. You get the erectile dysfunction advertising mule and former Brazilian great Pele to lay down the law to the current Argentine coach.

At the moment the formerly cocaine-hungry gun toting Maradona is an easy target as he successfully steers his beloved Argentina away from the complications of qualifying for the World Cup and the hassle of having to travel to South Africa next summer.

After Maradona questioned Pele’s record as a player last month, as the Brazilian never graced Europe with his skill, Pele was seemingly keen to shift the attention the attention back onto the managerial maestro.

Always one to rise to the occasion (thanks to the medication) Pele responded “Maradona was great but the best ever was Alfredo Di Stefano.”

“Maradona could not kick with his right foot and did not score with his head. The only time he scored an important goal with his head, he used his hand.”

This all came about after Maradona had said of Pele “He won more World Cups. But playing in Europe is another thing.”

Despite only making six appearances for Argentina, Di Stefano became a revered player thanks to a successful eleven year spell in Spain with Real Madrid, where he took citizenship and went on to score 23 goals in 31 appearances for his new country.

However he never made a World Cup finals tournament as Argentina didn’t play in 1950 in Brazil or Switzerland in ’54 and Spain failed to qualify for Sweden in ‘58 and he was ruled out of the ‘62 finals in Chile due to injury.

The negative accusations will be the last thing the little barrel shaped wizard will want as he struggles to keep the attentions away from his managerial inadequacies.

Thanks though to an edition of World Soccer magazine from January 1995 we are able to see that he is a veteran of experiencing a managerial hell and should take all of this in his stride.

Please also take note of the beautiful brown and beige suite combination and synchronized pointing that typified his early managerial career.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Thursday September 17, 2009.
Tags: Pele, Maradona