In what might be one of the stranger stories we’ve seen in a while, former soccer star Diego Maradona has apologized to tennis player Potito Starace for heckling him at a match last month. Let’s take this in bits and pieces. First, the problem (from ESPN.com):

Italian tennis player Potito Starace has lambasted former idol Diego Maradona for insulting him during his quarterfinal loss to Argentina’s David Nalbandian in the Buenos Aires Open. Argentine soccer great Maradona was supporting his compatriot Nalbandian from the stands but Starace, a fan of Maradona’s former team Napoli, was appalled by his conduct. “Maradona insulted me as soon as the match began,” Starace told Italy’s Radio Kiss Kiss on Saturday. “Diego made me lose my head, I went to the umpire and I said to him: ‘Either you throw him out or I’ll go bash a racket in his teeth.’”

Huh, sounds serious. Except for that Radio Kiss Kiss part. Come on now. But apparently the two athletes (OK, one athlete and one now-bloated former athlete) have arrived at a peaceful resolution (from Reuters):

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona has sent a signed shirt to Italian tennis player Potito Starace as an apology for heckling him during a match in Argentina last month. Napoli fan Starace, who used to idolise Maradona, has now received an autographed Argentina number 10 shirt from the 1986 World Cup winner. “Certainly what he did was wrong and even more so because he is Maradona,” Starace told Tuesday’s Gazzetta dello Sport, which carried a photo of him holding up the shirt. “But this ugly story finishes here.”

They spelled “idolise” funny. Oops, sorry for heckling. We’ll send you a RandBall shirt right away. Wait.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.