Diego urged to stay on
One of Diego Maradona’s assistants wants him to stay, and a top Argentine football official said the job is his despite the team’s devastating 4-0 loss against Germany in the quarterfinals.
“Knowing Diego, it is difficult for me to think he wants to step down after failing in his objective to win the Cup,” assistant coach Alejandro Mancuso said in a radio interview on Monday. “We can’t throw away all the good work we’ve done.”
Mancuso added that the coaching staff also wanted Maradona to continue.
Maradona has not made his plans clear following Argentina’s second straight loss to Germany in a World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday, but talked of “the end of a cycle” when the squad returned home from South Africa.
Cronica newspaper on Monday quoted Maradona as saying: “I gave all I had. Now I want to enjoy my family. Don’t worry, I’m not depressed.”
Argentine Football Association senior official Luis Segura said Maradona’s contract has a clause that triggers an automatic extension through to the Copa America, which Argentina hosts next year.
“The one who will have to decide to continue or not is Maradona,” Segura said in an interview.
Maradona will have to make his decision known in a meeting with the Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona, who appointed Maradona to the job in October 2008. Grondona is reported to be in South Africa and it is not clear when the meeting will take place.
Though 20,000 fans greeted the team’s arrival on Sunday, an on-line poll by the newspaper Clarin showed 63.1 percent wanted Maradona to quit. Other polls showed similar results.
The last major title for Argentina was the Copa America in 1993. The team won the World Cup in 1978 and ‘86. — AP
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