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Diego Maradona’s friend and former teammate Ossie Ardiles has spoken about the legend’s career in an extended interview with Sky Sports News.
Ardiles and Maradona played together in the 1982 World Cup, but Ardiles had retired from international service prior to Maradona’s inspiring performance at the 1986 tournament in Mexico.
Tributes have come from around the world for Maradona, who died at the age of 60 on November 25, and Ardiles has spoken of his close relationship with the soccer icon and how he deals with world fame.
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Diego Maradona transcended sports like Muhammad Ali, says his former teammate in Argentina and friend Ossie Ardiles
He said, “To be perfectly honest, he coped very well, he loved this kind of flattery. He was very happy with it.”
“When you were working with him you weren’t going to be alone with him. You weren’t going to have, say, 10, 15 people with you. You would have 150, 200, 300.
“I’ve been to different places in the world, for example, one day I was in Jordan with him and he arrived and the airport completely stopped. Jordan, I wouldn’t say it’s a football country, let’s say, but everything stopped.
0:55
Everton coach and former AC Milan midfielder Carlo Ancelotti says the late Diego Maradona was the best player he faced in his career
“Yes, from the hotel to the car for example, everything stopped. People started shaking or some people started to collapse. This was the phenomenon that it was.
“He was very happy with the flattery and with all the people around him. He was not very happy with power, let’s say, with presidents, with kings and so on.
“Many, many of them said ‘Diego, please come visit me.’ They are not interested at all. But he transcended soccer. I think another athlete who transcended his sport was Muhammad Ali for example. I think Diego was the same. “
Ossie Ardiles and Maradona before the Ardiles testimonial match between Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan at White Hart Lane in July 1986
‘Maradona’s biggest disappointment in football’
Ardiles also told Sky Sports News about the “sad occasion” when Maradona was eliminated for the 1978 World Cup in his homeland at the age of 17.
It was a moment that Ardiles describes as Maradona’s biggest disappointment in soccer and reveals how older players tried to help a distraught Maradona.
1:19
Terry Fenwick was in England’s defense in their memorable 2-1 World Cup quarter-final loss to Argentina in 1986, and says that had it not been for Diego Maradona, it would have been England going to the semi-finals.
“He was a member of the 25 players, but by April it had to be only 22, so three players César Luis Menotti (coach) had to say ‘you’re not going to play the World Cup’, and Diego was one of That was his biggest impact on soccer.
“I remember when he left the hotel where we were, he was crying and we couldn’t stop crying. We approached him and said ‘Look Diego, you’re very young, you’re going to have another World Cup, don’t worry about it.’
“At the end of the day, we all finished crying because it was too much. In fact, that was his biggest disappointment in football.”
‘A pinched car, church and concerned bodyguards’
Ardiles and Maradona shortly before their World Cup match against Brazil on July 1, 1982
Four years later, Maradona had left the disappointment of 1978 behind and was part of the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
Ardiles was also on the team and revealed an unusual story involving the couple and a visit to a local church.
“Diego said to me: ‘Ossie, what are you going to do tomorrow?’
“I said, tomorrow I’m going to pinch one of these cars, I’m going to go to the little town, I’m going to go to mass to pray to win the World Cup and so on, and then I’ll have a really nice lunch and come back. Very good idea so good , we did it.
0:32
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard says the late Diego Maradona made him ‘fall in love’ with football and was his idol growing up
“Wake up in the morning, pick it up in front of the room. We pinched a car, there were a lot of cars. And we disappeared from there.
“We went to the little town and went to mass. There were many, many people at the mass.
“Imagine especially when he arrived, when he opened the door and everyone… the priest had to stop the Mass! He just went from Boca Juniors to Barcelona so he had been on all the news and everything.
“The priest comes to us and says ‘Please oh hi, okay, no problem, can you go to this corner and attend mass and after that we will take all the photos and whatnot?’ And this is what we did.
1:59
Sky Italy’s Valentina Fass reports from Naples after the death of Diego Maradona, who spent seven years at Napoli winning his only two Serie A titles
“Mass ended and we took photos with everyone, many very young children, all dressed in white.
“And then we saw two or three of our bodyguards – you can’t miss them because of the way they were dressed. Oh – it was a sigh of relief for them, I mean Diego, because it was Diego and I, we were missing.” at the hotel.
“So they took the car key anyway and took us back and that’s it. Our adventure is over!”
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