Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images
Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images
Lifestyle /  Entertainment

Maradona in China: when Deng Xiaoping invited him to play in Beijing and footballer turned the Chinese leader down

  • Deng Xiaoping invited the Argentinian in 1987, but Maradona would not come unless he got 300 million lira, about US$230,000 at the time, according to a source
  • Chinese fans across the country are mourning the death of the ‘king of football’, with the topic generating more than 1.5 billion views on Weibo already

Topic |   Fame and celebrity
Sarah ZhengPhoebe Zhang
Sarah Zheng and Phoebe Zhang in Shenzhen

Updated: 6:47pm, 26 Nov, 2020

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Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images
Diego Maradona attends a charity football match at the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre on November 5, 2010 in Jinan, China. He was a frequent visitor to the country, but turned down an offer in 1987 from Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to play there, according to former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Photo: Getty Images
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