Maradona receives Nicaragua's highest honor

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has been honored by Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega with the highest award bestowed by the Central American country, where Maradona is visiting with girlfriend Rocio Oliva.

The official Nicaraguan government website El 19 reported on Wednesday that Ortega had awarded Maradona the insignia of the Order of Augusto Cesar Sandino, praising the footballer as a "fighter, a gladiator of peace and justice" during a private ceremony in his office on Tuesday.

Photographs of the event showed Maradona, clad in a black shirt, embracing Ortega before kissing the medal in appreciation.

"Thanks Daniel, I'm going to take care of it like the one I got in '86 -- like the World Cup," Maradona said, recalling Argentina's World Cup triumph of that year.

The presidential decree bestowing the award emphasized Maradona's "sporting greatness and human qualities" as well as his friendships with Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, the late leftist president of Venezuela.

Maradona, 55, revealed last Sunday on his Facebook page that he was vacationing in Nicaragua.

The football idol, considered one of the greatest players of all time, took in such sights as the Plaza de La Revolution and the National Palace in the historic center of the capital.

He also spoke with some young footballers playing in a Managua park, telling them that football had brought joy to his life.

"Some people say that I'm the best, then they talk about Messi, about Ronaldo, about this one or that one," he told the children. "I don't care! I played, I had fun. I scored goals, I beat goalkeepers, I beat defenders. I had fun."