FEW would have expected the highly touted China visit of Diego Armando Maradona to turn into a sort of farce.

Endless disputes, suspensions and cancellations have become the major components of a rumbustious, bewildering yet somewhat comic turn, ever since Maradona, with his worldwide reputation as the "King of Football", stepped on to Chinese soil on November 13.

Behind that facade is what many Chinese see as a moody, self-willed Maradona. He has teamed up with a businessman from Wenzhou of Zhejiang Province to promote a big roll of made-in-China products branded "Maradona", taking advantage of people's appreciation and even worship of this Argentine's fancy football skills and achievements on the pitch.

Upon his arrival in Beijing, the first stop of his China tour, Maradona was, as expected, immediately submerged in a flood of media and public attention.

However, instead of showing up at a series of social activities as scheduled, Maradona seemingly went out-of-control as he cancelled all arrangements set by the Chinese side set - including climbing the Great Wall and meeting fans at a university - in order to spend three days playing golf at a local course.

The Argentine was later seen getting into convoluted disputes with his Chinese partners, headed by a Wenzhou businessman named Chen Honglei, over his pay for the China promotion tour. This is an important part of a 50-year co-operation contract signed in September in Italy between 43-year-old Maradona and the Chinese side.

After lengthy negotiations, the two sides finally settled the issue by raising Maradona's pay for the visit from the previously-agreed 258,000 euros to 600,000 euros, thereby enabling the tour to continue as planned.

Shanghai drama

Yet events here in Shanghai proved to be no improvement on what people had witnessed in Beijing.

After arriving in Shanghai last Saturday, Maradona didn't show up, as scheduled, at a local golf course, a TV recording studio or the opening ceremony of a local company named Shanghai DAM Sport Goods Co Ltd (DAM is the short form of his full name). The company is expected to take care of the development, marketing and promotion of Maradona-branded products.

Instead, he was found staying most of the time in his hotel room until last Monday, when he seemed to have made a quick decision in the afternoon: he attended the delayed TV show recording session and then headed all the way out to Pudong airport to fly back to Cuba, where he currently lives.

However, it turned out the Argentine finally stayed in China, reportedly thanks to a call from a Chinese partner, reminding him that his leaving would mean giving up China, Chinese fans and his two daughters - Maradona earlier told the local media that his 50-year contract was, in fact, meant for his daughters.

And later events seemed to return back on track as Maradona appeared on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of Shanghai DAM, where he showed much patience when facing the bombardment of questions from the eager local media, though the activity was designed to be by no means a formal press conference.

"Now we are getting things solved step by step... I think all the troubles were mainly due to the cultural disparities and different ways of doing business between our two countries," Maradona told reporters.

'Cute guy'

Yet the question is: people are totally at sea about what eye-brow-raising things will take place next, including Maradona's Chinese partners.

"We can't exactly tell the media at the moment what our scheduled activities will be," said the Wenzhou businessman Chen, when receiving a telephone interview on Tuesday night from the Shanghai Star.

When asked how long Maradona will stay in Shanghai, Chen showed a similar kind of uncertainty. "It's hard to say...maybe tomorrow, the day after tomorrow...or simply immediately," he said.

"Don't you think such uncertainties will continually bring something for the public to talk about? That's what we and the 'Maradona' brand need," he added.

Claiming that his team's target consists of world-famous sport goods brands like Nike and Adidas, Chen said more than 2,000 domestic companies have signed up to join the Maradona-branded boutique network.

"Maradona means news every day. What have I to regret, given the fact that we are marketing such a superstar and such a strong brand with so much public attention?" said Chen, when answering whether he regretted embarking on such a troublesome project.

Describing Maradona as a "cute guy," Chen even said there was some inner connection between the off-the-pitch unpredictable personality the Argentine shows and his fanciful soccer skills on the court.

Admitting that Maradona is by no means an all-perfect man, Chen said he personally would tolerate every unhappy or even annoying thing that happened around the Argentine over the past two weeks.

"I hope, despite whatever happens, all his Chinese fans will still love him, though he might have done something wrong here," Chen said.