Maradona to visit European giants
Thursday, 1 January 2009 22:06Argentina coach Diego Maradona is beginning 2009 with a trip to Europe to see some of his national-team players in action for their clubs.
The Argentinian Football Association announced today that Maradona will fly to Europe tomorrow night alongside assistant Alejandro Mancuso in order to attend some matches in England, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
He will watch Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Porto, Inter Milan and Manchester United ahead of his team's friendly international against France on February 11 in Marseille.
The country's governing body revealed Maradona's trip 'has the goal of observing live football matches with players he has in his mind to be part of the senior squad in future matches'.
The statement added: 'He will also take advantage of the opportunity to talk to several of them to let them know about the work plans for the forthcoming months.'
Maradona's first stop will be Barcelona, where he is reportedly set to meet the club's head coach Pep Guardiola to try to convince him to let Lionel Messi play in next month's friendly - despite an agreement between the Catalan giants and the AFA that the forward would not play in run-of-the-mill friendlies.
That deal was struck last year as an act of goodwill from the AFA after Barca allowed the 21-year-old to appear for his country at the Beijing Olympics despite a Court of Arbitration of Sport ruling that they could justifiably deny him from doing so.
Maradona is expected to return to his homeland on January 18.
