"He wants to go to Cuba, but the courts won't let him," his doctor Alfredo Cahe said Aug. 5. "He wants me to talk with the president so he sees the extent of his recovery and what he is capable of doing when asked."

Maradona's family forced him to enter a private clinic on the outskirts of Buenos Aires in May for cocaine addiction treatment after he was rushed to intensive care in April with a swollen heart and breathing problems.

Maradona, 43, has spent much of the past four years undergoing a drug rehabilitation program at a spa in Cuba, which he considers a second home. He is less enamored with the Argentine clinic he is trapped in.

"In this clinic one person thinks they are Napoleon, another thinks he is (liberation hero) Gen. San Martin . . . and they don't believe I'm Maradona," the former World Cup winner told relatives during a recent visit, according to local sports daily Ole.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 14, 2004
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