What good is a visit by Maradona?
Diego Maradona is coming to India to visit Mother Teresa’s mission and inaugurate a football academy and the entire country is going gaga over it. I can understand the fact that this is a great opportunity to see one of the greatest players ever, in flesh and blood, but at what cost?
Maradona would not be mesmerizing us with his amazing football talent. Instead, he will cut a ribbon and make a speech about always having wanted to come to India. He will remind us that his life has been deeply influenced by Mother Teresa and all the drug abuse and the sex with a thousand women during his time in Italy was just a minor aberration. He will also praise the football talent in the country and prophesize future greatness for the Indian team.
And then he will collect his appearance fee and say goodbye forever.
That appearance fee will be money badly spent. A few million dollars were spent on Oliver Kahn’s visit and nothing came out of it. We are a cash-strapped nation and cannot afford to see Maradona in flesh and blood - Even though that would be the greatest story that we could ever tell our grand children.
Your militant passion is admirable, its hard to tell if you want him here or not!
I would have wanted him here had he come here as a player…or if he had come here for the real good of Indian football…he isnt here to do any of that…its just a chance to make a quick buck as a celebrity guest…and that buck could have been really well spent…
[...] championship to be held in Mumbai from December 15 was indefinitely postponed, Maradona’s trip to Kolkata seemed uncertain, and the already-behind-schedule 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games seemed [...]