Bitter Maradona blames Napoli, says he wanted to die

Bitter Maradona blames Napoli, says he wanted to die
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

ROME, JANUARY 13: Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona has lambasted directors of his former club Napoli, ending speculation that he would be given an ambassadorial role for the Italian First Division outfit.

Maradona in particular targeted Napoli director Corrado Ferlaino whom he blamed for the collapse of negotiations after he met club president Giorgio Corbelli at a top Rome hotel. ‘‘I gave him another chance,” said Maradona in reference to Ferlaino on Frirday.

‘‘But once again he betrayed me. I am sorry but I can’t work at Napoli alongside such a person.

‘‘In December when I came to Rome I had dinner with Ferlaino and brought my family with me.

‘‘I would not have done the same thing for Bill Clinton. In return he has betrayed me again: Ferlaino thinks only of money and not the good of Napoli.’’Corbelli was more circumspect in his reaction.

‘‘It was a calm meeting and at the end we decided to take time to think about it,’’ Corbelli said.

‘‘Currently there are not the conditions for the project we have talked about in the last few days,’’ he added.

The Napoli president also defended his boardroom colleague Ferlaino.‘‘Ferlaino is Napoli football club... It is he (Maradona) who wanted this (the split). Napoli must go forward,’’ he said.

The Argentinian seemed in a happier frame of mind later on yesterday when he appeared on a popular game show on Rai UNO called: ‘‘Go Where Your Heart Takes You.’’ The title of the programme might have appeared providential given the heart problems that almost ended his life last year but he was in a good mood, embracing children, juggling a football and then an orange and telling hostess Milly Carlucci, ‘‘You get more beautiful every time I see you.’’However, Maradona did refer to his brush with death last year.

Pointing up to heaven he said: ‘‘The fellow with the beard (God) told me not to die. It’s because during my life I have not hurt other people but just myself.’’But the tone was generally lighter after the emotional press conference earlier and a turbulent 24 hours since he arrived in Italy.

He was served with a writ for tax fraud of up to $ 24.6 million as he walked through Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday.

And during a press conference on Friday 40-year-old Maradona, who won two Italian titles with Napoli and almost singlehandedly led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, admitted his morale had hit rock bottom after calling his family in Argentina to reassure them.

A sometimes rambling Maradona said: ‘‘After what my daughter said to me (on the phone) I wanted to die.

‘‘I had to phone Argentina to reassure them I had not been shot. I have broad shoulders but it gets worse every time.’’

The player insisted however that the tax police who had greeted him at Fiumicino had been ‘‘very nice’’.

Maradona’s outburst ended any talk of a job with Napoli but he had given a hint of his disenchantment with Ferlaino the night before after his shock encounter with the tax authorities. ‘‘The problems with the tax authorities do not concern me but Napoli and (club director) Corrado Ferlaino,’’ Maradona said.

‘‘In my contract it was written in big letters that Napoli had to pay my bill. Let them go and collect (the money) from Ferlaino because he was in charge of the club when I was filling the stadium with 100,000 people.’’

After finally being allowed to leave the airport, the Latin American then went to spend the evening with Italy’s favourite gameshow host Raffaella Carra -who had an international hit in her youth with ‘‘Do it again (with love)’’.

YET TO SIGN CONTRACT WITH DUNDEE: Maradona also revealed that he had not yet signed a contract to play a one-off exhibition match with Scottish Premier League outfit Dundee. He hopes to link up with his former teammate in the Argentinian National side Claudio Caniggia, who is proving a big hit at the unfashionable side from northern Scotland.

‘‘I have not yet signed the contract but Caniggia told me in Scotland that the whisky is very good,’’ quipped Maradona in a press conference.