Ossie Ardiles told Soccer AM that Glenn Hoddle was like Diego Maradonna... just without the pace!
Hoddle only lacked pace, says Ardiles
Ossie Ardiles told Soccer AM that Glenn Hoddle was like Diego Maradona... just without the pace!
Maradona is widely regarded as the greatest player to have ever graced the game, but former England coach Hoddle is right up there with him, according to Ardiles.
The former Tottenham star played alongside both Hoddle and Maradona for club and country respectively and while he admitted that nobody had touched the heights of his compatriot, he also revealed his admiration for his former Spurs team mate.
"Glenn was God," he told
Soccer AM. "He was basically Maradona without pace! He was incredibly talented."
"But Maradona was the best ever," he added. "I've never seen anyone like him before or after.
"Right now you have some wonderful players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and there have been a lot of wonderful players through history, but no one was like him."
Foreign
That maybe true, but there are few players that have achieved as much as Ardiles either. The Argentinean became the first foreign player to play in England when he joined Spurs in 1978.
He went on to play over 200 games for the North London club, winning two FA Cup medals and the UEFA Cup, before returning to White Hart Lane as manager in 1993.
However, there is little doubt that the defining moment in his career came on home soil in the months just prior to his move to England, as Argentina beat Holland 3-1 after extra time to win the 1978 World Cup final.
"It changed my life completely," he said. "Without having played in the World Cup I wouldn't have come to England and I'm still here," he said.
"When you play such a big game, it's like a film and you just react to things," he added.
"As a player I always wanted to control the game in midfield and I wanted to know what everyone was doing - my team and the other team and I would always look for weaknesses.
"But in the cup final it just wasn't possible. It was like I was in a film and I just played."
Nerves
"I was very nervous (the morning before the final). Normally I would be very relaxed before a game. I never wanted to think about it so I would just think about a lot of different things.
"But on that particular day I was incredibly nervous and that feeling just stayed with me. It was impossible to sleep the night before, and I tried to eat as much as I could, but the flavour of the food and everything else just tasted funny.
"In a normal game, as soon as you've had a touch of the ball you start to feel confident and it becomes a normal game, but that's not the case in a cup final. The nervousness stays with you for about 15-20 minutes and it's really, really hard."
Autobiography
Ardiles, who has managed on every continent in the world other than Antarctica, has just released his first autobiography and he admitted it was a hugely enjoyable experience reliving his finest moments.
"The idea was put to me about a year ago and it's incredible how many memories I have, especially of my time in England, so it was great fun," he said.
