#Maradona “I left Napoli because I was exhausted, it was Diego Armando Maradona’s fault, the best player of all time. Handling him had become impossible. Even for someone like me, who had always had a great relationship with him” “I told president Ferlaino:”We can’t keep going this way. You can’t let Maradona leave, there would be a revolution in the city and I would become Judas to everyone. So there is just one thing left to do: resign” “I remember the last argument with Maradona like it was today. We were in Moscow on November 7th 1990 for the Champions League return match against Spartak (score was 0-0 at San Paolo). Everything started two days before: the team did its last practice on Monday morning. Maradona didn’t show up, we were leaving that night. This time rather than sending the doctor, I decided to go myself. Maradona was locked in his a room and you couldn’t get him to open the door. I spoke to his wife, Claudia Villafane, and his agent Guillermo Coppola. I told him “Don’t come at the last second with the private plane, because this time you won’t play Diego, you’ll go in the stands, you’ll only play if you leave with the team”. I had decided: this time the Argentine wouldn’t do as he pleased. Maradona rented the plane and left for Russia the day after. I wasn’t surprised. He arrived in Moscow convinced that he would play. I decided sending him to bench was a worse punishment than being in stands. It snowed and it was incredibly cold: it would have been a prize to watch from the stands. Maradona come in during the 64th minute but he didn’t change the result. The match ended 0-0 and we lost on penalty kicks (Diego scored his). “I resigned, also because I was afraid something would happen to him on the pitch. Something that happened a few months later: during the drug testing for Napoli-Bari on March 17th 1991 he was found positive, it was inevitable. Some even said I was involved in the urine testing when they found cocaine, but it was false. I’m not a traitor nor a coward, I would have never hurt Diego or Napoli” “I lived in Naples, not on the moon. So the directors knew about the rumors about drug use, but we never had the certainty. Also because when Diego was on pitch he looked like anything but a drug addict. I’m sure if he lived like Moggis book IL PALLONE LO PORTO IO traslated by @DavidAmoyal
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 19:54:05 +0000
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