It was too good while it lasted. As Diego Maradona vacationed outside Dubai, his club, Al Wasl, announced on Tuesday night that he had been fired. Gulf football can put you on a pedestal, but it can also be unforgiving as the Argentine legend must have now realised.
Last year when Al Wasl signed Maradona, it breathed new life into the UAE Pro-League, which for years struggled without success to get spectators into stadiums and raise its profile. The arrival of the inimitable Maradona, however, created such excitement that the tournament began to attract international headlines.
UAE newspapers went out of their way to record each and every move he made. Reporters assigned the ‘Maradona beat’ became stars overnight as the Argentine legend obliged them with good copy almost on a daily basis. His antics – be it lashing out at fans or at rival players and coaches – were splashed across the sports pages with an enthusiasm that mirrored the frenzy he caused during his playing days.
An Al Wasl official had gone on record saying that Maradona arriving in Dubai was bigger than Qatar winning the bid to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022. However, the manner in which he was fired one year before his contract was supposed to have expired left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Maradona, in a statement made through his lawyer in Argentina, made it clear he didn’t agree with the way the Al Wasl board issued a public statement about his axing.
“In case our economic restrictions do not allow us invest so heavily in players, there has and will always exist alternative smart and more conservative options to be discussed with the new management,” he said in comments published by the Gulf News daily. He even entertains hopes of the decision being reversed.
Maradona was one of the greatest players in the history of the game but by all measures he was a poor coach. His team did not qualify for the Asian Champions League and failed to win any domestic trophies.
Al Wasl ran out of patience when Al Wasl failed to win the GCC champions League after reaching the final against Bahrain’s Al Muharraq. It was reported that team President Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, a brother of the Dubai ruler, even turned up for the first time this season to watch the final in anticipation of a famous victory, but much to his disappointment it was Al Muharraq which walked away with top honours.
He joined Al Wasl after he was fired by Argentina, with whom he had mixed results and was fired. Before becoming coach of his home country in 2008, he coached Argentine first-division clubs Deportivo Mandiyu and Racing Club without much success.
Maradona might still get ultra-lucrative offers from teams in the Gulf, but the fact remains he is too big a personality and too hot to handle.