For my weekly commentary that runs with the two-page “Pro League package” in The National … I had decided to do a roundup of “what others said about Diego Maradona coming to the UAE.”

I expected that the most famous footballer of the past two generations would get all sorts of special attention.

I was wrong.

As I noted at the start of my Maradona piece, it seems as if everyone printed or posted the basics, which could be reduced to about three keywords: “Maradona … Dubai … Wasl.”

I found stories in media from all over the world. Every continent. Probably every country, had I bothered to look.

What I found interesting was … 1) how rare it was for any media outlet/blog/facebooker to put their own spin on this event, which reinforces the notion that the web is an echo chamber and 2) how that left the web with thousands of publications running the same three stores from AP/Reuters/AFP. After an hour, I could recite AP’s lede, I’d seen it so often.

Anyway, I found very, very little commentary, speculation, criticism, praise. Which surprised me. This is a big move for El Jefe Loco/El Diego/Maradona.

And it led me to the realization that a UAE team signing a big-name soccer star will yield plenty of one-shot attention. Same thing happened at the Al Ahli club a year ago, when it signed Fabio Cannavaro, former Fifa Player of the Year.

What is key, however, is realizing and understanding that the media beast must be fed.

The Al Ahli club did not grasp this. They have never, ever made Cannavaro available to media. We have had a standing request to speak to him, with nothing. A media guy there told me, a few months ago, that one of his “primary jobs” was to “protect the Cannavaro brand” … which, apparently, included making sure he was forgotten as soon as possible by hiding him from media.

Fabio is not available in mixed zones, before practice, after, not in a formal interview. Nothing. Ever. If he has done one interview with anyone in this country, since his introductory press conference … well, I missed it, and probably only a few calcio fans even remember where Fabio is playing or what he is doing …

And probably only family and friends have the vaguest notion of what he thinks about Dubai/the UAE, the caliber of soccer here, where he lives, how he lives, what he misses about Italy …

Al Wasl can’t allow that to happen again: Bring in a big name, make a big splash and then “never heard from again.” Not if they want a return from their investment in Maradona that is more significant than a few sheikhs getting his autograph.

Maradona must be made accessible. He should talk to the media all the time. After every match because league rules mandate it. After every practice because Wasl officials ought to mandate it.

He should venture opinions about the league, the country, soccer in Argentina and around the world. He’s Maradona — people will read what he has to say, and that is how Wasl and Dubai and the UAE will stay in the news.

They also should design a marketing plan. Sell some jerseys. Have him on Facebook or Twitter, have him do a blog. Expose him!

The man may be crazy and in poor health, but he’s still the Fifa Player of the Century (a title he shared with Pele). Like Pele, he is news.

Help him do that. Take advantage. Put him on a pedestal. Demand it. And maybe Wasl will have much longer in the global spotlight than Ahli’s 15 minutes with Fabio.