Diego Maradona cheers on Argentina against Tonga as football legend makes rare appearance in England at the Rugby World Cup

The Argentinian national hero appeared at the Leicester City Stadium to cheer on the Pumas

Jack de Menezes
Sunday 04 October 2015 15:21 BST
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Diego Maradona cheers on Argentina against Tonga
Diego Maradona cheers on Argentina against Tonga

Argentina looked to turn to one of their own national heroes to inspire them in their Rugby World Cup Pool C encounter with Tonga on Sunday as football icon Diego Maradona passionately cheered on his compatriots.

One of the greatest to have played the round ball game, Maradona revealed himself to be quite the rugby union fan as he belted out the national anthem in what is almost certain to be his first ever trip to Leicester, with the match being played at Leicester City Stadium – home of Premier League side Leicester City.

He didn’t appear to chuffed though when Tonga took a surprise lead through fly-half Kurt Morath after the Pacific Islander’s flew out the blocks, but the Pumas soon gave him reason to cheer.

Full-back Joaquin Tuculet finished a move after good work from Ramiro Herrera to put the South American’s ahead, but the best was yet to come.

Immediately from the restart, the highly talented 21-year-old wing, Santiago Cordero, burst from his own half, and as the ball was spread left, his fellow flyer Juan Imhoff cut inside to go over and score a contender for try of the tournament.

Tonga would produce their own blinder, as Soane Tonga’uiha took an inch-perfect offload from Telusa Veainu to reduce the deficit before the break.

With some brilliant attacking rugby on display, the man famous for the ‘Hand of God’ may already be questioning whether he chose the right sport. After all, he was just as good with his hands as he was gifted with his feet.

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