El Diego comes off sounding more like a doting grandfather than a coach of a national squad that is struggling to put together a string of coherent performances.
He gets very passionate about Fidel Castro.
"After that we just sat there for hours talking about politics. Six or seven hours easily. I killed myself laughing with him. He's a living legend and there's no one in the world with his charisma. No one, not even the Pope!"
Meanwhile Daniel Passarella, breaking a two year silence also gave an interview. As a player he earned Maradona's respect even though they had their disagreements, had this to say:
"Maradona as a player has vast experience but limited experience as a coach before taking on the national job. He had to deal with many other issues in his life and is presently facing an important transition in his thinking as a coach. He must take on different issues. My opinion is well intentioned."
Yes, I see. Maradona is, actually, a different person. As many of the players avoid to talk about politics, for him, on the other side, it's almost an obsession. Left-wingers who like football usually love Diego. There's a book by an argentinian sociologist, Juan José Sebreli, "Os Mitos" ("The Myths"), with a chapter called "El Mito Maradona", dedicated to El Diez. There it's possible to understand how complex is Maradona's personality, and also his ambiguity on political positions.
I would like to add, also, that I am the editor of the official blog of the Brazilian Football Museum (Museu do Futebol), located at the Pacaembu Stadium, in São Paulo. And, there, I inserted a post about the question of South Africa'10 and the swine flu. I would like to have your comments about it. The "Blog da Bola" is at "http://www.bloguedabola.blogspot.com/", and the post is called "Yellow light on South Africa'10?".
Thank you very much.