Football great Diego Maradona wanted to meet former Wales international Craig Bellamy after Carlos Tevez's recommendation.
Bellamy played with Tevez when the pair spent time together at Manchester City between 2009 and 2011. They had a good relationship on the pitch as the pair often combined to cause major problems for their opponents. They also built up a good relationship off the pitch.
The fiery Welshman made such an impact on Tevez that it filtered through to the former Napoli and Argentina legend, and the late midfielder, who is often regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, decided he would like to meet Bellamy during a visit to Liverpool.
Bellamy recalled the situation on the Tubes and Ange golf life podcast.
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The former Liverpool man said: “He came into the training ground and I was close to Carlos, I used to go around his house for food, he was a great guy. And then he said ‘look, what are you doing today after training?”
"So I was like ‘nothing’ and he goes, ‘well, I was just with Diego and he wants to meet you. ‘He’s at Liverpool crown plaza and he wants to know if you can come and meet him before he flies to Barcelona’.”
“I was like ‘Maradona?’ and he said ‘yeah’ and I was like ‘yeah of course I am yeah I’d love to!”
“Like that’s one of my top three {people he would like} to go meet, you know. I met Mandela, I always wanted to meet him and then Tiger Woods, so I was like of course.”
However, the meeting did not take place as Bellamy had a very important visit that he had already committed to on the day.
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Bellamy added: “I went into my locker and there was a club suit in there and I was like ‘I’ve got a funeral today’.”
“A young kid, he had leukaemia, and he was only young. He came into the club for a couple of months.”
“He came in now and then and he passed away unfortunately, and I said to Vicky from the PR like ‘who’s going to the funeral?'. She said ‘we’re sending a reef’ and then I said ‘look I feel it's important a player goes there and I said ‘it’s no problem’.”
“And then when I looked, I just said to Carlos, ‘I can’t go please, tell him my apologies, I would love to meet him, hopefully one day I get that opportunity again, but I’ve got to go to the funeral,' which I did.”
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Unfortunately, Bellamy didn’t get the chance to meet Maradona as the legend passed away in November 2020.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/YouTube@Tubes&AngeGolfLifeTopics: Football, Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tevez, Diego Maradona, Manchester City
