Argentine former soccer player Diego Maradona said on Thursday that he will debut as coach of the Argentine soccer national team in a friendly match against Scotland on Nov. 19 in Glasgow.

"We are going to play a match against Scotland, we are going to form the team with the best we have and then we are going to prepare the match against Venezuela in the World Cup qualifiers," Maradona said.

Maradona confirmed that the agreement between Barcelona and the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA) to skip Argentine forward Lionel Messi "will be respected".

"We are not going to pass over nobody, the president of Bracelona (Joan Laporta) was a gentleman when he let Messi attend the Olympic Games, so we will do the same," Maradona said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2008)