Despite Argentina’s dramatic 2-1 win over Nigeria, it was Diego Maradona’s weird antics, and not the team’s performance, that filled most of the headlines afterwards. He has now explained the reason for his strange behaviour.
The 57-year-old started the game with a dance with a female Nigeria fan, before seemingly erupting passion with when Lionel Messi scored Albiceleste’s opener.
He was later seen sleeping during the match, before showing his middle fingers in another emotional outburst when Marcos Rojo scored his country’s winner.
Reports suggested that the legend, who has a history of drug abuse, had more than alcohol in his system, but he has since dismissed these claims.
“Where we were, they were only serving white wine. Yes, we drank all the wine, but now I’m talking to you and I’m telling you the truth,” he told a close friend via a WhatsApp recording, according to the Daily Express.
“At the end of the first half, we went to eat. I like red wine and there was white wine. Each to his own.
“I swear on the lives of my mum, my grandson Benjamin and my son Dieguito Fernando’s life that nothing happened.”
After the game, reports emerged that Maradona had to be rushed to hospital, and there were even rumours that he had died, but he took to Instagram to quash the speculation.
“I want to tell everyone that I am fine (and) that I am not, neither was I, interned,” he wrote in English, Italian and Spanish on Instagram.
“In the half-time of the game against Nigeria, my neck hurt a lot and I suffered a decompensation. I was checked by a doctor and he recommended me to go home before the second half, but I wanted to stay because we were risking it all.”
FActoid:Â Maradona famously lifted the World Cup trophy with Argentina in 1986, and reached the final in 1990, but retired from international football after being sent home from the 1994 tournament following a positive drug test for ephedrine doping.