Will Diego Maradona Follow Alfio Basile As The Manager Of Argentina's National Soccer Team?

When Argentina lost to Chile last week during a World Cup qualifier, it sent a shockwave throughout Buenos Aries that literally broke the national team apart. Its manager, Alfio Basile, was so disgusted about losing to the Chileans--Chileans, of all people!--that he quit the team in the middle of their all-of-a-sudden precarious race to South Africa's 2010 World Cup. So what's a team to do? Well, if you're talking about this team, what you don't do is listen to Diego Maradona make a pitch to take over for Basile as coach.

"I would be really delighted, who wouldn't, to coach the national team," he said in a telephone interview with the TyC Sports cable channel when asked if he would like a chance. "I am completely willing and at the disposal of the Argentina team," he added.

Maradona has appeared as a rank outsider in the race to replace Basile, with Miguel Angel Russo, Sergio Batista, Diego Simeone and Carlos Bianchi seen as favourites.

You know who else should be ahead of him on that list? Both Perons, Eva and Juan; 1970 Argentine Nobel Prize winner Dr. Luis Federico Leloir; Gabriel Fernandez Capello, lead singer of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs; and everyone's favorite U.N. spokes-mouse Topo Gigio. Really anyone would be better than a formerly cocaine addicted narcissist who can barely be counted on not to fall off the wagon, let alone lead a misguided team to the promised land. Maradona Says Willing To Coach Argentina [Javno Sports] Image [Javno Sports]