César Menotti died: what was his relationship with Diego Maradona like?

César Luis Menotti is an authorized word within the world of football. In addition to an outstanding career as a footballer in clubs such as Rosario Central, Racing and Boca, among others, he also marked an era as a coach in Huracán and the Argentine national team, winning the first world title in 1978 for the country at the hands of Diego Armando Maradona. .

After his time with the senior national team, Menotti coached Maradona at Barcelona, ​​where he won three titles.

Menotti’s relationship with Diego Maradona

César Menotti and Diego Maradona They met in Barcelonaand the historic Argentine coach revealed something that Ten told him when he was about to go to Napoli.

Menotti arrived in Barcelona in 1983 with Maradona already on the squad after the dismissal of Udo Lattek and a season later he left the position. “I remember when I left Barcelona because my mother had died and I had gotten tired, and they were offering to renew my contract,” expressed Flaco on ESPN.

Then, the world champion in the 1978 World Cup revealed: “I remember a meal, there is a witness who is still alive but I am not going to mention him, that Diego told me: ‘Is it true that César is leaving? If you stay, I’m not going to Naples.'”

“Something that condemned me for life when I began to realize the reality I was living (in Naples),” Menotti reflected and said: “When Diego was going to play in the World Cup (in Mexico), I knew everything that It was happening… When I said that I was living like a kite, a miserable journalist said that I had said that Maradona was a kite, and I knew everything that Maradona was living, that’s why I said that he was living like a kite and now he’s going to be concentrated”.

Menotti’s appointment to the national team

The designation of César Luis Menotti At the head of the coordination of the Argentine national team in 2019 he generated criticism and praise, a situation in line with the love and hate that he carried since he founded a current in Argentine football. One of those who took a stand is Diego Armando Maradona, who expressed his absolute support through social networks.

“That he Skinny Menotti commanding the AFA today gives me great pleasure. Tapia finally realized. The only thing I ask is that Menotti still has the strength to direct Argentine footballbecause he knows how to do it“, he began his post in instagram.

“If he Skinny is strong, Argentine football is going to be strong too. 45 years ago the course of a country that called itself “the moral champions” changed. He made us run faster than the Germans and play like the Brazilians. Flaco, I love you with my soul and I wish you the best! “He added, remembering the coach’s arrival to the national team in 1974.

The day Menotti said no to Maradona

The former coach César Luis Menotti admitted that he was wrong “by not taking Diego (Maradona) to the 78th World Cup”, played in the country, although he warned that, since Argentina was champion, “no one said anything.” He said it in 2017.

“I was wrong not to take Diego to the ’78 World Cup, but then I became champion and no one said anything. Diego was the greatest player on the Argentine national team. When they couldn’t handle him at FIFA, they ‘killed’ him.”“Flaco” Menotti considered this Saturday in an interview with radio Miter.

Menotti’s sadness with the death of Maradona

“I’m screwed. I have no explanation, a lot of pain. There is no opinion that works in the face of this, I have no head. I’m destroyed,” he said in statements to TyC Sports when the news broke.

“I know his family, I met his old man, his mother. I’ve been to his house. I can’t believe it, they gave it as news that seemed like they were exaggerating and it’s terrible. With everything he overcame, he was more careful, more distant… It’s a tragic surprise,” he snapped.

“I have been with him in all places, in the serious things that happened to him. When he was a footballer at 15, 16 years old, until my stay in Barcelona, ​​when he went to Napoli and I returned to Buenos Aires. There we lived together many years,” said the Argentine.