The Day That Maradona Played For Tottenham

With Diego Maradona making a right mess of his tenure at the head coach of Argentina, there has been speculation that he will be replaced with the safe pair of managerial hands that belong to Ossie Ardiles (I know).

Once upon a time though, they were not rivals but teammates. Such was their bond that Maradona agreed to play in Ossie’s testimonial game at White Hart Lane, for Tottenham against Inter Milan back in 1986.

As you will see from the video, Maradona looked a fairly decent player in a Spurs shirt (at least as good as Mark Falco). I remember the following season there was talk of us launching a then ludicrous bid of £10m to steal Maradona away from Napoli. Seeing as Alan Sugar eventually ended up bailing us out, Irving Scholar must have regretted not going the extra inch to get Diego on the never, never.

The bit I like most about this video is Martin Tyler’s interview with Ossie and Maradona, in which he asks if Diego foresaw any trouble if England were to play Argentina in the 1986 World Cup. Sometimes with the power of hindsight, an obvious question can seem quite prophetic.