Diego Maradona Swears At Nigeria Fans

JOE SHORT

Diego Maradona could be in hot water for his outrageous celebration as Argentina beat Nigeria at the World Cup on Tuesday night.

Maradona has followed Argentina in Russia this summer and caused a stir before kick off with his antics. He was seen with tears in his eyes when Lionel Messi scored the opener in St Petersburg. But that was nothing compared for what was to come.

Marcos Rojo, who had only just avoided conceding a penalty as Nigeria sought a winner themselves, popped up to make it 2-1 to the South American side with just minutes left.

And Maradona was spotted celebrating the goal in the stands before turning his attention to the Nigeria fans. He appeared to flick both middle fingers up at the opposition support, goading them following the goal.

And Maradona’s antics did not go down well with the pundits in the BBC studio.

Gary Lineker said: “I think he might make the papers for a different kind of celebration.

“There’s a danger of him becoming a laughing stock I’m afraid in many ways.

“But Argentina, a marvellous evening for them, got through and did what they had to do.”

And Rio Ferdinand was also less than impressed.

“That I think will make a lot of the news as well unfortunately,” Ferdinand said.

“His career on the pitch as a football player was up there with the best.

“But unfortunately there are moments like this that do arise and it is not nice to see that.”

Argentina won the game 2-1 to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition.

But they have laboured to impress in the World Cup so far, having drawn 1-1 with Iceland and lost to Croatia 3-0.