THE SIDELINES : Maradona Sued for Libel in Flap
Retired Argentine soccer player Jose Francisco Sanfilippo sued star center-forward Diego Maradona for libel today in an apparent dispute over who is the greatest player of all time.
“This boy (Maradona) called me a traitor because I said that Pele (former Brazilian superstar Edson Arantes do Nacimento) was a more rounded player than he was,” Sanfilippo said after leaving the courthouse where he filed his complaint.
In his suit, Sanfilippo asked that Maradona be thrown into prison for six months and be banned from leaving the country.
Some Argentine sports announcers routinely label Maradona “the best in the world,” forgetting Pele, the Brazilian soccer great who led his national team to three World Cup victories.
According to press accounts, when Maradona was recently asked about Sanfilippo’s remark that Pele and not Maradona is the best in the world, the Argentine replied that Sanfilippo was “anti-Argentine and a traitor.”
Sanfilippo was a member of the national Argentine soccer team in the 1960s and a former player for clubs in Argentina and Uruguay.
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