Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 7y

Diego Maradona nearly signed for Tottenham - Teddy Sheringham

Tottenham Hotspur came close to signing Diego Maradona in the 1990s, according to the club's former captain Teddy Sheringham.

Sheringham says Ossie Ardiles, who managed Tottenham in the 1993-94 season, held talks with his fellow Argentine Maradona, before deciding against the move and signing Germany striker Jurgen Klinsmann instead.

Maradona was in his mid-30s that year and spent the campaign in his homeland with Newell's Old Boys after leaving Spanish club Sevilla.

"I got on really well with Ossie and I think I was the captain at the time, and Ossie came to me one day and said, 'I want your opinion, I'm thinking about signing someone,'" Sheringham told Stadium Astro.

"And I was like, 'go on,' and he was like, 'Diego Maradona,' and I went, 'Ossie, Ossie, really? Are you? Do it, just do it.' He said, 'I'm in talks with him at the moment,' and I was like, 'my God, do it, it would be brilliant to play with him.'

"He came to me about three days later and was like, 'I've decided not to sign Diego, he's got too much baggage around him.'"

Maradona had previously appeared for Tottenham in Ardiles' testimonial in May 1986, but Sheringham says the blow of not signing him permanently was softened by the arrival of Klinsmann, who went on to become a Spurs legend after two spells at the club.

"I just couldn't believe that Jurgen had just won the World Cup [with West Germany in 1990], and he was coming to Tottenham, and he was a revelation at Tottenham," he said.

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