Diego Maradona was the greatest player of his generation, arguably of all time. As a manager, less so. This week he popped up as the new coach of Second Division Dorados Sinaloa in Mexican drugs cartel territory, his seventh managerial job since 1994.
From the dug-out, he'll never reach the heights he achieved as a global superstar that twinkled for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, Newell's Old Boys and Argentina. But neither will life be dull.
Maradona was the most charismatic figure in sport when he won the World Cup in 1986 and his personality – provocative, manic, colourful, controversial – hasn't changed a lot since.
Here Sportsmail charts the highs, lows, fights and mania that has accompanied Maradona's bizarre managerial career so far...
MANDIYU CORRIENTES (ARGENTINA) 1994
Fresh from being kicked out of the 1994 World Cup for failing a drugs test, Maradona took his first job on the other side of the desk at a small club 700 miles north of Buenos Aires. It didn't go well.
Mandiyu won one game in 12 before Maradona left in a strop claiming interference from the club's President Roberto Cruz, who he accused of insulting his players.
RACING CLUB (ARGENTINA) 1995
One of the craziest periods of Maradona's life, which is some going by his standards. He was fined for throwing water at a linesman, missed training and games claiming a back injury and faced charges of wounding three journalists the previous year with an air rifle.
Following a familiar pattern, Maradona left Racing after 11 matches. But with his drugs ban as a player lifted after 15 months, he was then able to return as a player, eventually hanging up his boots with boyhood heroes Boca Juniors in 1997 at the age of 36.
After that he twice came close to death due to heart problems created by chronic drug addiction. But more than a decade later, there was a most unexpected comeback as a manager...
ARGENTINA 2008-2010
It said plenty about Argentina's fragile state that they felt it necessary to appoint the ultimate loose cannon. Maradona's predecessor Alfio Basile had won only one of his last eight internationals and been beaten at home to Chile in World Cup qualifying.
Maradona presided over a humiliating 6-1 defeat in Bolivia but turned things around sufficiently to qualify for South Africa. Maradona celebrated Martin Palermo's 94th-minute winner against Uruguay with a seismic bellyslide along the touchline and later told reporters they could “take it up the a***” - earning a two-month ban from Fifa.
The World Cup itself was a circus. Maradona left Inter Milan treble-winners Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso out of his squad and there was so much attention on Diego that even Lionel Messi was practically ignored.
Argentina reached the knockout stages but Maradona's tactical shortcomings were obvious as they were thumped 4-0 by Germany in the quarter-finals. The players idolised him. 'To us, he is God,' said Javier Mascherano.
AL WASL (UAE) 2011-12
Aware that none of the world's leading clubs would employ him as manager, Maradona decided to start monetising his immense fame and went back to work in cash-rich Dubai.
He lasted 14 months in the Gulf despite regularly threatening to quit if he was not allocated more money to buy players. Al Wasl finished eigth in the UAE Pro League, 29 points behind champions Al Ain, before a new board pulled the trigger while Maradona was on holiday in Argentina. He still had a year of his contract to run.
Despite indifferent results, Maradona's magnetic personality made him a hugely popular figure in the UAE, giving one of football's traditional backwaters a welcome avalanche of publicity.
Even Al Wasl spoke of their “unique and strong relationship” with the coach they sacked.
AL-FUJAIRAH (UAE) 2017-18
After five years out of the game, Maradona was offered a route back in Fujairah, the poor relation to their more glamorous Emirates partners Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
It was a sign of how his stock had fallen that Fujairah were only in the second division of the UAE League. After failing to gain automatic promotion, Maradona was reportedly sacked, only for the club to then try and rehire him for the promotion play-offs, by which time Maradona wasn't interested.
In the end, Fujairah won the play-off without Maradona and he announced he was going to Belarus as chairman of Dynamo Brest, leaving with the emotional farewell: “I consider myself an Emirati citizen”. However, it wasn't Belarus where he turned up last week for his latest managerial job..but Mexico.
DORADOS SINALOA (MEXICO) 2018 - PRESENT
Eyebrows were raised as Maradona was unveiled this week at a team currently placed 13th in the 15-team Mexican Second Division.
Maradona has painted the opportunity as a last chance - “I was sick for 14 years” - but it's a risk given his history to be based in a region with a reputation for drugs.
Maradona earned more headlines at this summer's World Cup for his wild-eyed zany celebrations whenever Argentina scored but will hope a return to Mexico, where he won the World Cup, will bring good fortune.
Maradona attracted two hundred journalists to his first media conference in Culiacan, the state capital of Sinaloa. 'I want to give Dorados what I lost when I was sick,' he said.
There will be plenty of skeptics who doubt Maradona has the ability to organise himself, let alone a football team. But like the rest of Maradona's life, the latest chapter won't be ignored.
