Inter; fact not opinion. His use of over 100 players in qualifying was topped when he selected 30 year old Ariel Garce for his final 23 man squad. Garce is a journeyman defender of 4 caps (3 friendlies in 2003 & a 4th recently against Haiti) who was taken because Maradona had a dream that Argentina won the World Cup and the only face he could remember was Garce’s. This story even beats Raymond Domenech’s cosmic selection strategy.

Maradona prowled the touchline in beard and suit and looked like he might bring himself on for Messi at any moment. In the end Messi ran out of steam, Maradona satta king ran out of players to try and Argentina were walloped by those pesky Germans in the quarter finals.

Which brings us neatly to the only two football ‘super powers’ yet to be mentioned. The first, Germany, did as they always do – they brought their A-game to the finals and came third, scoring four goals in three separate matches and only being outdone by Puyol’s thumping header in the semi finals. They were very close to being world champions yet again with a team built on youth, ethics and teamwork.

The second, England, are a ‘super power’ in their own minds but actually couldn’t be further away from a second world title after a disastrous campaign in which their talisman left his heart at home, the coach lost his sanity, the defence lost each other, and the country finally realised they are simply not good enough. It’s like proud parents discovering that the apple of their eye has been placed in the remedial class at school. It was all topped off with an embarrassing Last 16 tonking by Germany and the most unbelievable non-decision in a World Cup game since the last unbelievable non-decision…which ironically involved England and a certain Argentine hand.

There were some players who made a name for themselves in South Africa (Thomas Mueller, Robert Vittek, Keisuke Honda, Mesut Özil, Asamoah Gyan, Landon Donovan), some who enhanced an already growing reputation (Diego Forlan, Wesley Sneijder), and several superstars who simply crashed & burned (Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Kaka). There was also one, Miroslav Klose, who was cruelly denied by injury the chance to become the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.

Ultimately the best team won and Paul the Octopus predicted it but South Africa 2010 will probably not be remembered for the football or Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s semi final goal, it will mostly be remembered for one thing – those bloody vuvuzelas.