This was the big story today, and The National was all over it.

Diego Maradona, “El Jefe Loco,” as I preferred to refer to him while I was writing the countdown to South Africa blog, has signed a two-year deal to coach the UAE Pro League club Al Wasl, starting with the 2011/12 season.

First, let’s get you situated with plenty of links of how this played on this side of the world.

Here is the straight news story. It’s official, El Diego/El Jefe Loco has signed with Wasl, a club in Dubai.

After the basic news went up, we came back with a story of how the recruitment of Maradona was a sort of cloak-and-dagger deal, and that he was offered a contract even before his weekend visit to the club. Interesting stuff.

Yesterday, when his hiring was still a rumor, I did this brief comment piece on it. Let’s just say I’m skeptical that this will work out.

Our columnist, Chuck Culpepper, is far more enthusiastic about the idea, as he wrote for the Tuesday paper.

Here are some of the basics of his history. I think the word that applies is “checkered” — with very high highs and some pretty massive lows.

Two of our British correspondents filed, and their thoughts on Maradona are interesting. British journalism can wear out a North American, from time to time, with its jargon and fondness for complicated writing and clauses within clauses, but these are two valuable pieces.

One notes that Maradona is “a genius” — and how that is both good and bad. Another dwells on how erratic he has been, in and out of soccer.

Wasl played a game last night, losing at home to Al Jazira, who clinched their first league championship — which got buried by the Maradona news — and we talked to some of the Wasl fans. The story starts with some quotes from Josef Hickersberger, the Austrian who played for and coached his national team in the World Cup and who coaches the Abu Dhabi side Al Wahda, but then it goes to Wasl fans.

A fact that cannot be forgotten: Coaching is a tenuous existence in the UAE. We did a huge project on the topic last week, and here is the main story. The thing is, clubs churn through coaches even among guys who are really stable, feet-on-the-ground types. And Maradona is not a really stable, feet-on-the-ground guy.

The reality is that this is a country prone to being star-struck, and Wasl executives seem to have decided that they could overlook the numerous warning lights blinking around Diego Maradona just so long as they can revel in the delicious expectation of his arrival.

How long will he last? Something far less than the two years on the contract, is my guess.

As I wrote in the comment piece linked above, however this turns out, it will be … memorable.