Plans are being made to hold a one-off game between Italy and Argentina in honour of former Barcelona and Sevilla man Diego Maradona according to sports journalist Tariq Panja.
Maradona passed away last November, and the two nations he’s intimately tied to are Italy and Argentina. He enjoyed his best years of club football in the former, where he starred with Napoli, and led the latter to the 1986 World Cup almost single-handedly.
Something for the football romantics: Plans at an advanced stage for a one-off game between new European and South American champions: Italy-Argentina in Napoli to commemorate the life of Diego Armando Maradona pic.twitter.com/IJpWwo6P3H
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) July 13, 2021
The two are also recently-crowned regional champions. Just last weekend, in fact, Italy won Euro 2020 at the expense of England in London and Argentina won the Copa America at the expense of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
The last time the fixture was played was back in 1990, and Maradona was at its epicentre. That was in the World Cup semi-final, in Naples, with Argentina knocking Italy out to secure a place in the final, where they lost to West Germany.
The fixture would be the fruit of an effort on behalf of UEFA and CONMEBOL to foster closer ties, with another example being the referee swap between Euro 2020 and the Copa America.
