NEWS ROUND-UP: IN THE shanty towns of Buenos Aires they used to call him el pibe, Argentine slang for the little kid.

But yesterday Diego Maradona, the diminutive Argentine footballer whose ball skills and ruthless cunning have granted him almost mythical status in his home country, was on the verge of becoming el maestro with his imminent appointment as manager of the national team.

The decision by the normally conservative president of the Argentina Football Association, Julio Grondona, marks an astonishing comeback for a controversial player who came close to death in 2004 when he spent 10 days in intensive care with respiratory problems following what was thought to have been a cocaine-induced heart attack.

Only four years earlier, he had been voted the best footballer of the 20th century in a poll of fans for Fifa. He has also endured hospitalisation with alcohol-induced liver problems and underwent gastric bypass surgery for obesity in a Colombian clinic.

In 1994 he was ejected from the World Cup in the US after he tested positive for ephedrine, a fact that might have been obvious to anyone who saw him run up to a pitchside camera and scream into its lens, eyes bulging unnaturally after he scored his only goal of the tournament against Greece.

But with Argentina's two-time World Cup winning side in the doldrums in recent internationals, drawing six in a row earlier this year, Grondona hopes Maradona's presence will galvanise the team.

"I have wanted Maradona to be coach of the national team since 1979," Grondona said in a radio interview yesterday, following talks with the 48-year-old. "In Argentine football there is a before and and after Maradona."

Maradona indicated yesterday that he would rein in his famously volatile emotions when he becomes boss. "It makes me really happy that my parents will see me walk out as coach of the national team," he said. "But I don't want to cry. The national team needs a man who will make people smile, not cry, who will give them something to enjoy, not suffer."

He also said his lack of managerial experience - which runs to a total of 23 games with modest provincial club Deportivo Mandiyu and then Racing Club, in the mid 1990s - would be no problem. "They talk about my inexperience but I've spent 20-odd years in the Argentina team," he said. "That's why it makes me laugh when people talk about inexperience."

But Maradona is impulsive, unpredictable and temperamental. For some in Argentina, it is almost as if the English star Paul Gascoigne, whose personal and professional trajectory has closely mirrored that of Maradona, had taken control of the England team - an unthinkable prospect in England.

Both number 10s were hailed as the greatest footballers of their era but lost control through drink and drugs. Among the Argentine public yesterday there seemed to be limited enthusiasm for Maradona's appointment, despite hopes it might deliver cheer as their economy is struggling again. Online polls for daily newspapers La Nacionand Clarinreported that around three-quarters of respondents disapproved.

Reflecting Maradona's sometimes volatile character, Carlos Tevez, the Manchester United and Argentina striker who Maradona once described as "the Argentine prophet for the 21st century", said: "Diego needs to think more with his head than his heart now that he's coach."

If the appointment is confirmed, as expected in Argentina, there appeared to be trouble ahead for one of the team's star players. It was reported that Maradona has previously branded Barcelona midfielder Lionel Messi too selfish in his play. Messi has been dubbed the new Maradona for his similar build and dribbling wizardry.

"There will be no problem," said Messi yesterday. "He is a great. I admire him for what he has given to Argentine soccer. I am optimistic."

"His charisma will make the players follow him 100 per cent," said Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who lifted the 2006 World Cup. "They will listen to him like an oracle."

Most England fans have a love-hate relationship with Maradona after the "hand of God" incident where he scored a goal with his hand to help knock England out of the 1986 World Cup. But he is also respected, alongside Pele, as perhaps the greatest footballer of all time. To some of his countrymen, he means more than that. On his 43rd birthday in 2003, fans in Rosario established the "Church of Maradona" and decided 2003 should be 43DD, "despues de Diego" or after Diego.

"Maybe he's risking too much, as always in his life," wrote Daniel Arcucci, a columnist for La Nacion, reflecting on his appointment. "Even his status as a myth."

• Guardian Service