Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano admits that new
Argentina manager Diego Maradona’s decision to make him his
national team captain was done without his knowledge.
Mascherano last week stated that he felt he did not have the
dressing-room presence to skipper his country.
Nonetheless, Maradona said at the announcement of the squad to
face Scotland at Hampden Park on November 19 that he wanted
Mascherano to be his captain.
It was news that took the 24-year-old by surprise.
“I did not know about this! Maybe I will have a meeting with him
and we will talk,” he said after Liverpool’s 1-1 Champions League
draw with Atletico Madrid at Anfield on Tuesday.
However, the former River Plate and Corinthians star
acknowledges that playing under Maradona, who as captain led
Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, will be an honour.
He added: “For every player on the national team it has been a
shock, but to have a man like that as your manager will be
fantastic.
”I think we as players have to take him and Argentina to the top
of the world.”
Mascherano’s manager at Liverpool, Rafa Benitez feels the
midfielder has the qualities to take on the role.
"Mascherano has the character and mentality to be a captain,”
Benitez told the club’s official website.
"It is an important situation for anyone - to captain their
country. If someone says to you that you can be captain of England
or Argentina or Spain, it is a massive honour because they are big,
big countries.
"If he has the chance he could do it."
