Argentine media reported Wednesday that Diego Maradona may quit as Argentina coach over his choice of an assistant, after just one week in charge. Maradona is due to make his coaching debut in Glasgow next week in a friendly against Scotland.
The reports said Maradona has run into a deadlock with Argentina soccer federation President Julio Grondona because the new coach wants to appoint his friend and former teammate Oscar Ruggeri as his assistant. Grondona has said he is opposed to Ruggeri’s appointment, and admitted to reporters Wednesday, “I don’t like his face. It’s a personal thing.”
The reports said Maradona had met the team’s new general manager Carlos Bilardo Wednesday and sent a message to Grondona insisting on Ruggeri’s appointment. Reuters quoted “several websites and television channels” as saying that Maradona could ultimately resign over the matter.
Maradona had initially announced that former 1986 World Cup-winning teammates Sergio Batista and Jose Luis Brown would be his joint assistants, but then backtracked. Ruggeri, who was capped 97 times by Argentina, coached a total of seven clubs in an eight-year spell between 1998 and 2006.