Maradona ...

It was the Summer of 1990 and I was in Naples, Italy for the World Cup.

Writing this post reminds me I need to write the post about directions to Naples including the sentence, "She will be the most beautiful girl in the train station," as an actual description of who was to pick me up. She was ...

Anyways ...

Diego Maradona was attempting to return Argentina to the glory of the 1986 championship he had dragged them to. He was playing his club football for Napoli in Serie A and was a quirky guy according to reports. All of this was before the bizarre turns his life would take over drugs, Castro, weight, and comeback attempts.

He had always been an interesting guy. His practice habits and isolation make Allen Iverson's seem normal. There were images of him training alone instead of with his team. His talent being so unique he was given leeway other players could not dream of asking for. Then it all crashed down.

I have had the opportunity to see in person many of the greatest athletes of the past several decades. Maradona is one of those I was truly fortunate to witness; especially given the time frame involved and where he played.

Recently, he was named coach of the Argentina national team. Given his own bizarre behavior and practice tendencies, and his own previous failure as a coach in the Argentine league, the decision to hand him one of the best teams in the world is at best a questionable one.

My first reaction to reading of his hire was to check to see if it was April 1st. As i was doing this I found myself shaking my head, but sort of looking forward to the fireworks. Two weeks later rumors have already surfaced to say that he is going to resign prior to running a single training session.

I actually double checked the Internet to see if he was still the Argentine coach prior to posting this. As of right now, he is. Things could change very quickly.

With Maradona nothing is surprising.