Higuain Must Persevere Through Adversity

Instead, Maradona is refusing to bench Carlos Tevez, a player Maradona loves because they came from similar backgrounds and both played for Boca Juniors. Tevez has a horrible scoring record for his country (50 caps, eight goals), and is one of the biggest reasons Argentina have struggled to qualify, having received two red cards, both before the half hour mark, and missing an important penalty against Ecuador despite pleas from Messi to take it.

Higuain is most likely struggling to play for Maradona because he sat out of the Olympics in order to rest, at the urging of Madrid. Maradona has said that any player who turns down the shirt will not play while he is boss, although he has since contradicted himself by claiming the door is open for Roman Riquelme to return, despite retiring from international football twice.

Having played for Maradona’s archrival club, River Plate, cannot help Pipita's cause.

The fact that Maradona is displaying such biases would crush most players, but Higuain is still stressing it is his dream to play for Argentina at the World Cup next summer. Some pundits have urged Higuain to play for the country of his birth, France. Although such a move would be unlikely, as Higuain doesn't speak a word of French and was only born there because his Argentine father was playing football for Brest. He left the country when he was ten-months-old, and has no real connection with it, but he could swap national teams should Maradona continue to shun him.

If Higuain is able to gain a starting place amongst Real Madrid's galacticos, and force his way into Maradona's side, it will be a truly great achievement. If he doesn't pull it off it will be sad, but few can blame Pipita's effort on his predicament.

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