Soccer megastar Diego Maradona has sent a message of love and admiration to former Cuban president Fidel Castro and promised to visit Cuba soon, state-run media said on Saturday.
“Tell Fidel that I love him,” Maradona told Cubadebate.cu, the news Web site where Castro publishes opinion columns on current affairs.
According to Cubadebate in a story datelined Caracas, Maradona “will travel to Havana within 30 days, and of course he’d love to see Fidel.”
Maradona, one of the greatest soccer players in history and the controversial coach of Argentina’s national team, is currently in Venezuela on the invitation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Maradona said that in his latest television appearances Castro seemed “very lucid, very well, contrary to what the Americans want, which is to see him dead,” Cubadebate said.
“He’s very much alive and that suits me well,” Maradona said, speaking during a meeting with Chavez at the presidential palace.
Maradona has been out of the spotlight since his return from South Africa, where he took his team to the World Cup quarter-finals.
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