International Football
VIDEO: MARADONA RECALLS HIS FIVE MOST MEMORABLE WORLD CUP MOMENTS
One thing is for sure whenever Diego Maradona holds court: there are bound to be fascinating anecdotes and insights aplenty, not least when the topic of conversation is the ins and outs of the game itself.
Only too happy to answer FIFA.com’s request to look back at his five most memorable FIFA World Cup moments, El Diez kept the conversation flowing for the best part of an hour, waxing lyrical about his first goal at the competition, his first and only red card, the Goal of the Century and a couple of other notable slices of Maradona magic.
Courtesy of FIFA.com, we bring you some of the choice quotes that did not make the final cut of the video that accompanies this article.
18 June 1982
Argentina 4-1 Hungary: His first World Cup goal
“I just wanted the ball to go in, nothing else. We’d lost our first match against Belgium and we were up against it.
“I’d scored goals at the U-20 World Cup but you can’t compare that to the feeling you get when you score at the World Cup proper. It’s like your mum coming and giving you breakfast in bed. It’s pure happiness, like when I used to give my mum a kiss on the lips. There are so many things that go through your head.”
2 July 1982
Argentina 1-3 Brazil: A red card for kicking Batista
“I spoke about it years later with Batista and I’ve said it to Falcao too. At 3-1 they started to make fun of us and I don’t like losing one little bit. He said to me: ‘No, Diego. That’s just the football we feel inside us’.
“But you know what? If I was three goals up and started singing ‘Ole! Ole! Ole!’ as we stroked the ball around, then you’d get pretty mad too. If you’ve got a bit of blood in your veins, you’re going to get fired up. But yes; I kicked the wrong player. Unbelievable!”
22 June 1986
Argentina 2-1 England: The Goal of the Century
“I never scored another goal like it. I’ve scored a few that were very difficult to put away, but this was in a World Cup. It was every kid’s dream.
“We all dreamed of dribbling past the lot of them, including (Peter) Shilton. I still don’t understand what he did.
“I don’t know if ghosts or a UFO came down and took him away. He just left the goal wide open for me. I just went past him and that was it!
“‘I never tire of watching it,’ as my mum used to say to me whenever I caught her watching the goals on TV.
‘Come on, Mum! Watching the goals again!’ And she’d say to me that watching her son score that goal made her feel totally relaxed. ‘You go if you want. I’m going to carry on watching your goals’.”
24 June 1990
Argentina 1-0 Brazil: A magical assist for Claudio Caniggia
“The Brazilians blamed Alemao for that goal, but I got past him pretty quickly. The one I really shrugged off and used my elbow on to stop him getting at me was Dunga. So, it’s not Alemao’s fault but Dunga’s. He let me get past him.
“When Cani (Claudio Caniggia) scored, I thanked God, my mum and all the saints in the world. He barely celebrated.
“He just raised his fist. Pow! As if it were nothing. When I saw him afterwards, I said to him: ‘Listen, right here in the cold light of day: did you see what you did today?’ He said: ‘Yes, I scored a goal’. ‘No, you didn’t! You reduced a whole stadium to silence!’
“Out of respect for the Brazilians, I put the Brazil shirt on when I went back to the dressing room. It was Careca’s. He’s my friend. But I felt as if… not as if we’d robbed Brazil but that they deserved to go through instead of Argentina. They pinned us back the whole game but we won. That’s why football is the most beautiful sport in the world.”
3 July 1990
Italy 1-1 Argentina (Argentina win 4-3 on pens): Beating Zenga from the spot
“It was pretty strange because when we went to penalties, the Italians were telling me on the pitch that they should have won the game. (Luigi) De Agostini and (Walter) Zenga told me a draw wasn’t a fair result. But in a match like that it’s not a question of deserving things, is it? They had their views and I had mine!
“I’d just missed [a penalty] against Yugoslavia. So, when I walked from the centre circle to take my kick I said to myself: ‘If you miss this, you’re an idiot. If you miss, you’re a wimp, you’re the worst. You can’t betray all the people that love you – Mum, Dad, my brothers, the people of Argentina, everyone!’ But then I got the better of Zenga and on we went. It was me who knocked the Italians out.”
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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