Maradona: The Right Man for Argentina?

In 1986, Maradona gifted Argentina the country’s second world title by beating West Germany 3-2 in the final, a feat making him much more popular than any Argentine celebrity or even president! Through Maradona’s outstanding play in the tournament and his wonderful performances at the club level, the FIFA had no other option but to give him the player of the year and later go on to prize the Argentine with the Best Player of the Last 50 Years Award, along with Pele. There is no doubt Maradona was far and away one of the top two players to have ever played the sport. However, with Argentina’s present predicament in their qualifiers for the world cup in South Africa, the question remains: Did Grondona and the AFA make the right decision in appointing the eternal national hero and World Cup winner, Maradona, as the new coach? The answer is simple, NO!
It is 100% true; by selecting Maradona as head coach of their national team has reunited the Argentine population after a free-for-all Basile caused during his second era with Argentina’s national team. Maradona’s fervent attitude towards the Argentine jersey and country makes him an instant crowd-pleaser. Obviously his past credentials as a player also give more incentive to trust he will do more than a good job with Argentina’s finest. Because of his love and passion for the sport and the country, all Argentine players will forever respect him for bringing glory to an overzealous country. He is not only Argentina’s footballing symbol, but also one of two the entire world has. Unlike other coaches, who are often disrespected and disregarded by their players, Maradona is confident his personality and his past will never be doubted by his fellow countrymen, and this is because he was a football giant, a rare player who has only come along every once in a while in a privileged generation. Others like Hugo Sanchez, after an appalling run as Mexico’s head coach, will never restore all of what they represented because he was not one of the best ever. Maradona will not have to worry about losing his Argentina’s respect because of his achievements. Also, unlike Basile’s era, Maradona will strongly bring out the passion and love for the jersey and country from every player he selects, making them work harder as a team. But surely, player respect and effort along with the entire country’s support are not enough to direct Argentina to their third World Cup title. Obviously, there is much more to coaching than just having the backing of the players, federation, and population because after all, a coach, by definition, is a fundamental leader who keeps organization and discipline within a team structure.
Maradona, believe it or not, has had a short spell in the early to mid 90’s as a head coach of a couple Argentinian clubs, including the popular, Racing. During his short stint as coach, Maradona racked up 3 wins, 12 draws, and 8 loses, a record not worthy of bragging about. Grondona, clearly, overlooked the one measurement sports analyst, fanatics, and experts use daily when studying and discussing the art of sport: the statistic. Other coaches, like Carlos Bianchi, on Grondona’s hit list for Argentina’s head coach have won every club competition Argentina and South America have to offer, yet because of a personal conflict between the AFA president and Bianchi he was not selected. Grondona also overlooked other coaches who have much more quality (in terms of length and good results) experience like Batista (Argentina youth coach and winner of the 2008 Olympics tournament) and Russo, the current San Lorenzo (tied for first place in Argentina) coach. Statistically, Maradona is not even close to being the ideal coach for Argentina, especially under the current crisis the national team finds itself in qualifying, being tied for third with neighbor and trans-Andean rival, Chile.
The second troubling aspect of the Maradona selection is: does Maradona have the right attitude and personality to coach a star filled Argentinean team? Maradona is and will always be the most criticized footballer of all time, from his playing days (drugs, red cards, fights, etc.) to his coaching days (red cards, verbal assaults, media personality, etc.) to his days as an observer of the sport (player and coaches criticisms, recommendations, etc.). The recent conflict between Maradona and Messi is a clash between Maradona’s care for the player and his obsession with being the best ever. Though Messi reminds Maradona of himself as he and Grondona have admitted, Maradona always seems to criticize Messi more than everyone else, maybe because he expects more of Messi or because Messi reminds him of himself or out of sheer jealousy, whatever the reason, Messi respectfully retaliated in a media conference by stating, “Maradona always has something to say about me”. It must be said, Maradona is very close with the Argentine squad (coaches and players), but this can also cause some problems, take for example the Maradona-Aguero relationship (Aguero is Maradona’s son-in-law).
Maradona’s obsession with being the best leaves little room for others to object to any of his ideas because Maradona is very passionate about being the best, even when he makes mistakes. This characteristic is a negative one to have for a coach, especially an inexperienced coach. During Maradona’s reign, he will need to consider his player’s feelings, ideas, and playing ability, and stop comparing himself to his ideal world, which he has often done when watching Argentina play. As a coach, it is important to accept mistakes and poor results in order to learn from them, hopefully, for Argentina’s sake, he does not get too rattled when things do not go his way because he is on the sidelines now, not playing.
Maradona’s coaching behavior in the past has haunted his teams in the past, as he has gotten more red cards in his short coaching career than he did in his entire playing career. In a troubling situation like the one Argentina currently finds itself, Maradona’s coaching behavior will be tested, especially with tough world cup qualifying trips at La Paz, Quito, Asuncion, and Montevideo. Again, Maradona’s pride can cause some problems for Argentina. Maradona will bring more outside attention to himself and the team.
Maradona recently claimed he has more than enough experience (from his playing days) to coach Argentina to victory. One must reject his claim when taking into account his coaching career numbers (again, in terms of wins and length of career). Coaching an international squad is much more difficult than a club coach because you don’t train everyday like the clubs do, instead you meet up every couple of months for a week and play two games or you meet up for a couple of months during international tournaments, one month for training and one month to play the tournament. Also, as mentioned before, Maradona has had plenty of experience controlling situations in the field but not off the field. He is blessed with the best players in the world, but with this blessing, one goal needs to be achieved: a World Cup trophy, anything less will be an absolute failure (if Argentina does not qualify for the World Cup, the world should come to an end!). If Maradona is to succeed in this new highly difficult challenge, Maradona will need to learn how to control himself on and off the field, accept the way his player’s play, and tactically set up a team that is nearly impossible to field correctly because of the large number of talented players the country provides every year around every league.
As an Argentinean football fan, I hope Maradona can prove me wrong and win the World Cup. Though I must admit he is not the right man for job because of the current delicate state of the team and his experience. We’ll see what happens in March when qualifying restarts again. Good luck Maradona, you’re going to need it!