体坛英语新闻：Maradona wants to coach Boca Juniors

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Argentine former national soccer team coach Diego Maradona said on Thursday that he "is dying" to coach Boca Juniors club, which is currently without a coach since Claudio Borghi left.

Maradona proposed to have a "long, extended" meeting with Juan Ramon Riquelme, a player with whom he has had some differences.

Maradona also accused the president of the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA) Julio Grondona of acting like he is "the owner of the national team and of Argentine soccer."

"I am dying to be the coach for Boca, but first there are many things to talk about with many people," Maradona told British weekly "People".

Maradona also criticized his colleague Julio Falcioni, coach of Banfield, who is one of the candidates to coach Boca.

"If they are going to hire a goalkeeper to coach them, then they have not learned from the bad things that happened when Mauricio Macri was coach," he said.

Meanwhile, Maradona also said that he does not want to push Riquelme, who resigned from the national team in March 2009 due differences betweem the two.

"I do not want to push him and then he leaves Boca because of me. I am not going to push him, but of course to return we would have to meet and talk for long time," Maradona said.

Maradona also said that he left the national team due to Grondona, who "let his head fill up with bad things from his daughter and an evil environment."

However, he wished Sergio Batista "good luck." Batista will replace him on the national team and added that his appointment " means that everything will be fine for the Argentine people."