Teddy Sheringham says Tottenham almost signed Diego Maradona – but opted for Jurgen Klinsmann instead
TEDDY SHERINGHAM has recalled how Spurs mooted signing DIEGO MARADONA.
The Argentina legend was apparently available during his stint at Napoli.
But according to former White Hart Lane favourite Sheringham, then manager Ossie Ardiles was keen to make a move for the 1986 World Cup winner.
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Sheringham said: "I got on really well with Ossie, and I think I was the captain at the time and Ossie campe to me one day and said 'I want your opinion, I'm thinking about signing someone.'
"And I was like 'go on' and he was like 'Diego Maradona.'
"And I went 'Ossie, Ossie, really?! Are you?!' I went '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.'
"So 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.'"
Nobody can question Ardiles' wisdom on that count.
Maradona has had controversy following him round his whole life - including last week when he was quizzed by police at a hotel in Madrid following an apparent row with his girlfriend.
Any player, even one that went on to achieve what Sheringham did, might have been crestfallen at the news.
But instead, he was told how he would be playing with another World Cup winner.
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Not the 1986 winner Maradona, but a key component of Germany's 1990 World Cup win, Jurgen Klinsmann.
Sheringham added: "I couldn't believe that Jurgen had just won the World Cup and he was coming to Tottenham - and he was a revelation at Tottenham."
Klinsmann went on to score 30 goals in his only season in the Premier League, helping fire Spurs to seventh in the table, before he went on to join Bayern Munich the next summer, but he would re-join in the 1997-98 season.