Given King Charles III’s past as a polo player, it’s no surprise that sports are near and dear to his heart, something that has been the glue between him and athletes, especially former soccer star David Beckham. But one football legend had nothing but scorn for the monarch. That would be Argentinean superstar Diego Maradona, who in 1986, met Charles when he was still Prince of Wales. Maradona was in England to honor fellow Argentinean player Osvaldo Ardiles, who was then playing in England’s Premier League. The itinerary involved a trip to Buckingham Palace for a meet and greet with the prince when things got awkward.
“There was great emotion from all of us,” recalled Guillermo Coppola, Maradona’s then-agent, per Football Italia. “At one point, however, Diego said to me: ‘Coppola, tell that big nose to take his hand off my shoulder.’ I looked at him astonished, I didn’t know what to do. That big nose, as Diego had called him, was Prince Charles.”
The animosity was likely due to Maradona’s total dislike for England, triggered by the 1982 Falklands War, a colonial naval battle just four years earlier when the Brits defeated Argentina over the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. The star managed to get personal revenge against his vilified nation, scoring two goals for Argentina in a victory against England on their way to a 1986 World Cup title.
