Manchester United 1999 treble winner Teddy Sheringham has revealed Diego Maradona was on his way to Tottenham Hotspur, only for his ‘baggage’ to scupper the deal.
Speaking exclusively on eSPORTY and Burger King’s Squad Table, Sheringham recounted how then-Spurs boss Ossie Ardiles sought the Premier League icon’s thoughts on a move for the late World Cup winner.
Although Maradona didn’t end up in north London, Ardiles still managed to add some serious star power in place of the maverick attacker.
“We’re going back a few years, and you’re talking about people you’d want to sit down with, Maradona would have to be one,” Sheringham recounted.
“Ossie Ardiles was my manager at Tottenham, he came to me one afternoon.
“He said, ‘I want your opinion on something, Ted. I’m thinking about signing someone, what do you think?’
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“I went, ‘Well, go on, who?’ He went, ‘Maradona’. I just erupted and was like, ‘Ossie, just do it’. He said, ‘Okay, it’s in the pipeline’.
“He came back a couple of weeks later and said, ‘Look, we can’t sign him. There’s too much baggage. But we’re going to sign [Jurgen] Klinsmann instead.’
“Five minutes later, Klinsmann was at the club and all was forgiven. But Maradona would have been a good one.”
