Mauro Icardi: I know nothing about football

In an unusual interview, Icardo has spoken about his lack of involvement in football when not actually playing.

“Football is a sport I have fun with, but I play it and that’s all,” he told Sportweek. “I never watch games and know nothing about what’s going on in the sport.

“I don’t follow other Serie A results or know who got into the Coppa Italia semi-final. Who is the Chelsea goalkeeper? I know that, I’m not stupid.

“I’ve always been like that, ever since I was a kid. At the Barcelona youth academy I lived right next to Camp Nou, but I spent my days watching movies. There are plenty of professional players who couldn’t care less about football.”

The Argentine forward is known as one of the most controversial characters in Serie A, mostly for his off the field soap opera with Wanda Nara, the ex-wife of his former best friend and team-mate Maxi Lopez.

He became a father for the first time last month and unveiled a giant tattoo of her name, Francesca, along his collarbone.

“Wanda says I’m a 40-year-old trapped in a 20-year-old’s body," he said. "She’s right, it has always been like that. I’ve been more mature than my years since I was 10, so my mother and her friends said the same.

“It’s thanks to my mother, who let me free to crash face-first into a few walls. She helped me understand life is not Disneyland.”

Curiously, Icardi’s 41-year-old mother has recently given birth to twins, so the player who turns 22 later this month will be surrounded by babies.

He already lives with Nara’s three children from her marriage to Maxi Lopez, his former Sampdoria team-mate.

Because of that affair, Maradona famously said he would have given Icardi “a good kicking” in the locker room.

“When they told me what he said, I had a good laugh," he said. "He didn’t want me taking part in the Match for Peace, but I went anyway.

“I think people should just focus on their own lives and mind their own business before talking. Nobody is 100 per cent clean. I don’t talk to Maxi Lopez and neither does Wanda. He phones every day, we read his name on the display and hand it over to the kids. That’s it.”

Icardi also shakes off criticism of his love for fast cars, expensive jewellery and materialistic trinkets.

“I am a bit of a chav. My agent tells me that all the time too. I have a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce and a cold Hummer. I just got the name of an expert and will have all the interiors customised.

“I don’t know why I keep getting roped in with the so-called ‘bad boys’ of football. I really don’t care either. The unhappy people are those who listen to others. I never listened to anyone and I’m very happy.”

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