Soccer-playing legend Maradona to manage Buenos Aires club

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona has said that he was returning to the professional game as manager of lowly Buenos Aires team Atletico Almagro.

The 39-year-old on Tuesday said that he had accepted an offer to manage the club who were recently promoted to the Argentine first division for the first time in more than half a century.
''I'm happy. We always want glory more than anything else, so after having obtained glory in my playing career, I also want glory as a manager, to teach young players,'' Maradona told Reuters television in an interview.

He was speaking in his bungalow at the health spa hotel in Cuba where has spent most of this year receiving treatment for cocaine addiction.

Maradona and his representative, Guillermo Coppola, was finalising details of the deal with Almagro after talks in Havana with the club's president Dardo de Marchi.

None of the big names, however, have made serious approaches. Many think Maradona's delicate health, famously volatile temperament, and history of substance abuse, make him unlikely to be considered for a top post.

Bureau Report