International Football
HOW MARADONA DIED: HE FELL A WEEK BEFORE HIS DEATH
The inquisition on the death of the football legend, Diego Maradona has thrown up a conspiracy theory. It has been reported that hefell and hit his head a week before his death and was left alone for three days after the accident.
According to local reports, Maradona bumped his head after he fell inside his house. However he was reportedly not taken to hospital or given an MRI scan.
The revelation is coming after his personal physician is been investigated for possible medical negligence.
Maradona died of ‘acute lung edema and chronic heart failure’, according to a preliminary autopsy report, in his sleep at noon while resting at his home in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina, last Wednesday.
The 60-year-old Argentine football legend was receiving round-the-clock medical care at a house in a gated community where he was recuperating from surgery to remove a clot on his brain in early November.
A lawyer for Gisela Madrid, Maradona’s nurse, was quoted by Argentine media as saying: ‘Maradona fell on the Wednesday of the week before his death.
‘He fell and hit his head, but they didn’t take him to the hospital for an MRI or CT scan …’
Following the fall, Maradona was left alone in his room for three days, lawyer Rodolfo Baquè claimed.
‘Maradona was unable to decide anything: after the fall he was left alone for three days in his room, without being seen by anyone and without being helped,’ he said.
Mr Baquè added that Maradona had hit the right hand side of his head, the opposite one from which he had undergone a blood clot operation on November 11.
On Saturday it emerged Maradona’s nurse had admitted she lied about an early-morning check-up.
Initial reports pointed to a 24-year-old nephew who was staying with him at the San Andres home being the last person to see him alive over breakfast the day Diego died.
Maradona was said to have told his relative ‘I’m not feeling well’ before going back to bed and dying in his sleep before investigators were told he had never got up on Wednesday to eat anything.
Diego’s nephew told investigators he last saw him when he went to bed around 11pm on Tuesday. An uneaten late-night sandwich snack was among the items found in his room by police.
A night-shift nurse told investigators he had seen Maradona ‘sleeping and breathing normally in bed’ around 6.30am on Wednesday.
A report in the hands of state prosecutors heading a probe into the retired footballer’s death, leaked to Argentinian media and signed by a nurse named locally as Dahiana Gisela Madrid who took over around the same time, states: ‘At 6.30am I started my shift and the patient was resting.
‘At 7.30am he is heard moving around inside his room. At 8.30am he continues to rest. At 9.20am he refuses to have his vital signs monitored.’
The health report for private medical firm Medidom is now at the centre of an ongoing probe after the nurse reportedly told investigators she had never entered Diego’s bedroom the morning of his death to check up on him.
Local news agency Telam, citing judicial sources in a report widely echoed in the Argentinian press, said the nurse had claimed in her second statement under oath that she had been ‘made to lie’ for the Medidom report.
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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