Coco Basile, after 16 years of silence, has indicated Maradona and Gago as the culprits of his resignation from the national team

Hoarse, ironic and witty voice. Funny and full of anecdotes. Some funny, some not so much. As always, the only condition for telling or giving an opinion on any topic is not to betray any code, a religion that seems to be losing believers among younger footballers.

Coco Basile answers the phone as if he had always just woken up. He is put to pinpone with a soccer friend who wasn’t a player and is a Nueva Chicago fan. Fernando Niembro greets him from the Radio Colonia studio.

Without wanting it, the note becomes an almost intimate conversation. Alfio lets himself go, laughs and makes people laugh. The journalist and whoever accompanies him to the table do not interrupt. Niembro and Basile seem to vibrate on the same wavelength.

Stories that come and go. Impressions on how the game is played today in Argentina. Obviously, a lot of racing. But also of Independiente, Boca and River. Themes appear and disappear almost without a common thread. Or yes, the football one. Coco is relaxed and comfortable with him.

Relaxed and pleasant, the conversation flowed at cruising speed. As usually happens in tasty interviews, the plane enters an area of ​​some turbulence. Turbulence is given and taken naturally.

“You left the national team, Riquelme supports you and everyone says that Messi and Maradona are making your bed”, asked Niembro, as if he hadn’t known the real reasons for years.

There is silence but without tension. The experienced pilot insists: “Was it because of Maradona and Messi?”

Coco reacts as he played: impulsive and to the bone. “Nooooo, not Messi. He was a kid,” he clarifies. “Messi had nothing to do with it. He spoke little. He was better than bread”, he adds. He doesn’t say anything about Maradona, which is also saying a lot. At the table the journalists look at each other. They resume silence without asking permission. It takes another handful of seconds.

Niembro seems to enjoy the moment and takes his time taking the penalty. Were there players who worked to make you go away? El Coco is convinced so. He doesn’t say it like that, but it’s like that. He allows himself to confess that there were “players” who conspired to wear him down, even though he would never allow himself to use those words.

“At that moment I understood that the waters were moving. I saw that there was movement among the players and some managers, Argentina would still have qualified. I was rotten with a couple of players, of which I will never tell you the name. …It was time to leave,” he said.

“Gago was one of them,” Niembro still surprises, as if he knew what El Coco knew and never said. “Gago was in difficulty because Mascherano was always a starter and wanted to play”, replies Coco.

Not above. Among the chauffeur’s companions there was still Maradona’s thorn. They wanted to know more. As if he felt the fever of study, Basile expanded without dilating himself too much. “Gago was friends with Maradona then. I love Diego so much.” Coco, this time, didn’t want to make the crossing.

After Coco’s resignation in 2008, Diego Maradona was appointed coach of the national team. Diego won on the pitch and, in this, also off it.

He also spoke about the former AFA director, Julio Grondona. “When I left it wasn’t in my first phase with the national team (when they won two Copa Américas).”