The former White Hart Lane favourite explained how a casual chat almost brought the controversial superstar to London.
The N17 faithful are currently engrossed by the football unfolding across the Atlantic. Yet a wild slice of alternate club history has completely dominated local conversation this week. Tottenham icon Teddy Sheringham, who scored 125 goals for the club, dropped a massive bombshell regarding a failed transfer. Speaking on the Burger King Squad Table show, the forward revealed Diego Maradona was inches away from joining.
This unbelievable move was the brainchild of manager Ossie Ardiles in 1994. Ardiles pulled his star striker aside one random afternoon to get his honest thoughts on a potential partnership. At 33, the late Argentine maestro was possibly nearing the end of a chaotic yet beyond illustrious career. He had just been kicked out of the tournament in America after failing an ephedrine test.
“Ossie Ardiles was my manager at Tottenham, he came to me one afternoon,” Sheringham recalled to talkSPORT listeners. The excited forward demanded that his boss get the deal done, and Ardiles had confirmed that the audacious move was in the pipeline.
A legendary German forward eventually arrived in the capital after luggage issues cancel the historic transfer deal
That sheer excitement faded fast when Ardiles returned with bad news a few weeks later. The maverick playmaker simply carried far too much baggage outside of football to make the transfer viable, and he had also previously served a lengthy cocaine ban. Tottenham Hotspur quickly pivoted and spent two million pounds on Monaco striker Jurgen Klinsmann instead.
Selling Klinsmann to the English public was tough initially. Fans despised his reputation for diving and remembered his role in eliminating England four years prior. The German completely flipped the script by bagging twenty league goals during a magical debut campaign. Those exploits earned him the prestigious FWA Footballer of the Year award.