Football: Maradona leads legends to Chechnya

The legends walked onto the pitch to the roars of about 30,000 fans wearing special red, white and blue shirts.

GROZNY:

Football legend and former Argentina coach Diego Maradona led an all-star squad of former internationals to Russia’s war-torn Chechnya for a peculiar exhibition match sponsored by the local leader. Maradona, 50-year-old, and the likes of French World Cup winner Fabien Barthez, 40, and about a dozen other former greats were hustled into a bus at the Grozny airport under tight security before being shuttled to the city’s new stadium.

The legends walked onto the pitch to the roars of about 30,000 fans who were all made to wear special red, white and blue shirts that made the stadium look like a giant Russian tri-colour flag.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.