Maradona kicks fan’s hand

A video posted on YouTube showed Argentina’s 1986 World Cup winning captain attempting to pose for a pre-match photo-shoot in front of a banner hanging on the wire mesh separating fans from the pitch.

After shooing away some over-enthusiastic supporters who tried to approach him, Maradona appeared to grow annoyed at a fan who persistently lifted the banner from behind. Eventually he kicked the fan’s hand away. Maradona apologised to the fan.

“As a surprise from my daughters in Argentina and Manchester, they put a sign up for me in the ground that read: ‘Grandfather, I’m with you. I love you. Benja.’ I’d like to apologise to one of the fans. I was trying to unfurl and see the whole banner and, by mistake, I perhaps injured him,” he said.

Maradona, one of the world’s greatest ever players, has often endured problems on and off the pitch, including arrests, suspensions and spells in rehab. – Agencies