Pedro Pasculli: Diego Maradona's roommate is now Bangor City boss
Sky Sports News reporter Rob Jones travelled to North West Wales to learn more about Pedro Pasculli - Diego Maradona's World Cup-winning team-mate, now in charge of Bangor City
Monday 21 October 2019 18:54, UK
No matter where Pedro Pasculli's career has taken him - and to date that includes Japan, Indonesia, Albania, Uganda and now Bangor City, where he is manager - the conversation always leads back to one man... Diego Maradona.
While Pasculli lay awake until the early hours of the morning ahead of the 1986 World Cup final, his roommate "slept like a baby". En route to the final, Pasculli had scored the winning goal for Argentina against Uruguay in the round of 16, before Maradona's immortal moment against England six days later.
"Not only as a man, he was a real friend, a good person," said Pasculli.
"There was no arrogance about him, because he was Maradona. He would always be helping you out and trying to encourage you and support you the whole time."
But even if those friends in high places have acted as a conversation starter in North Wales, Pasculli - and more pertinently, Bangor City - have work to do to win back the local community, who have "lost a lot of trust" in the club, according to General Manager Luke Purcell.
Bangor were relegated from the Welsh Premier League in 2018 and missed the chance to play in the Europa League due to financial irregularities.
With that lost revenue, a tumultuous time followed - Bangor came close to the brink under previous owner Stephen Vaughan and such was the level of disillusionment that many of the supporters now follow the splinter club Bangor 1876 that has been created, and taken many of the best local players and academy prospects.
In September, musician Domenico Serafino took over from Vaughan, and the Italian bought in Pasculli as manager. His English is limited and he presides over a squad that has 21 Italian players and one solitary Welshman - goalkeeper Jack Atkinson.
Pasculli is intensely learning English in between training sessions and wants to help guide Bangor back to the top of Welsh football.
"The most exciting thing was the project that the owner and technical director came to me with," he said.
"It was a three or four-year project, a long term project to bring Bangor back to what it was. To win this league, to get back into the Welsh Premier League and return to playing in Europe."
