Zenga: Maradona is a friend

Walter Zenga rubbished talk of a rift with Diego Maradona emanating from their playing days when the Argentine scored a winning penalty past the Italian in the semi-finals of Italia '90. Zenga said: "Me and Maradona are friends; even if we had lost I would have gone to him and shaken his hand. This is respect. I find coaches here they never shake hands and just moan after the game that this isn't football. The most important thing in life is respect. You can be a good coach or a bad coach but respect comes first. Preeminent figure "We spoke before the match — whatever the result is, the first person's hand I will shake is his. Maradona is the story of football if football exists it's because of Maradona. "In my own small way I can say I was three times world's best goalkeeper but Diego is Diego and you can't not have respect for him. I'm a guest here and it's my style to respect everybody. If someone doesn't respect me, I don't care. But Diego is Mr Diego Maradona and I am Mr Walter Zenga." Maradona said: "I have a great relationship with Quique Sanches Flores and Walter Zenga. Zenga came to me after the game and wished me Merry Christmas. It wasn't so nice after the draw but it was a grand gesture and warmly accepted and returned."