Diego and Jose enjoy a Dubai love-in

Dubai: Dubai Sports Council’s decision to put football heavyweights Diego Maradona and Jose Mourinho on the stage together at the 7th Dubai International Sports Conference could have been a recipe for a highly explosive encounter (in a tabloid journalist’s wild imagination, at least).

Both are outspoken and controversial characters with massive egos, and therefore their “showdown” was pregnant with possibilities in what was the undoubted highlight of Friday’s session of the two-day conference at the JW Marriott Marquis hotel.

One wondered how the self-anointed “Special One”, Mourinho, would cope with sharing the limelight with one of the greatest footballers of all time. Would it be an unsavoury juxtaposition in which their frustrations at their respective career mishaps this year (Maradona’s sacking as Al Wasl boss in the summer and Mourinho’s struggles in the league this season with Real Madrid) came to the boil?

The reality, sadly (or happily, depending on your penchant or otherwise for imagined controversy) was very different. For Dubai was treated to two football geniuses bathing in mutual admiration and respect without a hint of narcissism or petulance for which they have often been famed.

A powerful and inspiring film homage to the respective greatness of these two marvellous “Ms” prefaced their talk, which was entitled “Sports Strategies and Planning”. Scores of Maradona’s breathtaking goals were replayed, interspersed with memorable footage of Mourinho celebrating his numerous trophy successes, all set to a suitably stirring classical music soundtrack.

Following the film, the host of the pair’s session, the AC Milan director Umberto Gandini, showered the two greats with well-deserved, if somewhat effusive, platitudes.

Maradona was, he said, “the champion of the century”, while Mourinho was “a great leader with the ability to turn a group of a men into an army with the belief of winning”.

But rather than bask in this extreme adoration, Maradona and Mourinho embarked on their very own Dubai love-in by, shock, horror, heaping praise on each other.

Maradona got the ball rolling by admitting he had learned a lot from a true coaching “legend” and winning machine in Mourinho.

The Portuguese repaid the compliment by declaring: “My contribution as a coach was nothing compared to what he [Maradona] has done. He was a great player and he is football.”

What could have turned into an endless bout of tedious, syrupy exchanges turned out to be a highly enjoyable and occasionally fascinating glimpse into their perspectives on the Beautiful Game.

And far from showcasing arrogance and hauteur, the Jose and Diego show featured light-hearted badinage and refreshing self-deprecation.

Maradona, for example, poked fun at his own managerial failings, saying Mourinho was a much better manager than him and that he had been “a disaster” in terms of dealing with the media.

“I talk to some journalists and they like me, some don’t like me because they want me to do something and I do the opposite,” he said, laughing.

Mourinho, meanwhile, admitted he had “not been a great player” like the Argentinian legend, and also paid tribute to his friend Sir Alex Ferguson’s astonishing longevity at Manchester United.

“I want to be with him [as he continues his career] and I want to endure with him,” he said.

He also quipped that his first thought on hearing that his side, Real Madrid, had been drawn to play Ferguson’s Manchester United in the Champions League next season was that he’d have to spend about €500 (Dh2,427) on a bottle of wine for the Scot.

“He only drinks super, super-expensive wine,” said Mourinho, who appeared in relaxed and buoyant mood despite his recent travails at Real Madrid.

Appropriately on a night when love was all around, both men also repeatedly stressed their passion for football — and called on people in the UAE to do the same in order for the grassroots game to grow here.

It was a truly surreal night, free from rancour and bile for which the duo have sometimes been renowned, and full of good humour and cordial chit-chat.

And it was truly fitting that, at the end of the M and M mutual admiration society meeting, the pair enjoyed a warm and long-lasting embrace.