I am ready to die for my players, says Maradona

London, Jun 12 (ANI): Argentinean coach and one of the greatest footballers of all time, Diego Maradona, has said that his team will take the World Cup trophy to Buenos Aires.

"I am ready to die for those 23 men, for what they give me in training, for the conversations we have, for their heart, for their feeling for the shirt, for the fact they know how the people of Argentina feel," said Maradona, who led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup triumph in Mexico.

"For all that I think we will start creating a dream. We believe in ourselves a lot. I was very nervous as a player. I was telling our captain Javier Mascherano yesterday my hands sweated, I put my hands up to keep energy," The Sun quoted Maradona, as saying.

"I see this World Cup with the same intensity but with much more tranquillity because I believe in the players I have," he said.

Maradona, 49, is using his own examples of triumphs and disasters to advise his players about the pitfalls of stardom.

"Some of my players are my sons and some are my older brothers. Above all, though, I am the one who is the boss and who has the last word. We speak to them a lot and listen to them a lot. There are young players also and I could be their father.

"But I speak to them without dismissing the authority of their fathers, I speak to them about all the bad things that happened to me and tell them not to fall in the same traps," Maradona added.

Maradona suffered a fall from grace after testing positive for cocaine in the 1994 World Cup. His addictions brought him to the brink of death and his life was spared only after he went in isolation in Cuba to treat a heart condition. (ANI)