It’s 10 years ago, the first ever Soccer Aid, and Alastair Campbell and everyone else taking part are in awe of just one man

One of my rules in life is that I say to someone, every day, the words: “I played with Diego Maradona you know.” I have done it every day since I did so, 10 years ago in the first Soccer Aid, and I will do so every day till I die. I have played in a charity game with Pele, too, but Maradona is the Number One for me.

I had almost an hour just kicking a ball around with him

Because of my Scottish background I chose to play for the Rest of the World rather than England, my birthplace. So we spent a week training with the likes of Schmeichel, Desailly, Matthäus, Zola, Ginola and Dunga. Then two days before the game the organisers told us Maradona was coming. Never mind the non-footballers like me, these pros were just as excited. I remember Desailly almost fainting because Maradona said, “Hi Marcel.” “He knows my name!” said Desailly. I replied: “You did win the World Cup, Marcel.”

Our manager was Ruud Gullit and the day before the match at Old Trafford he told me I would be starting. I couldn’t sleep. I got up early. Maradona’s lawyer was up and we had a coffee together when Maradona sent the guy a text saying he fancied going to the stadium for a kick-about. “Do you want to come with us?” the lawyer said. Er, yes. We headed up to Old Trafford and the ground staff weren’t happy about us going on the pitch. In the end they said OK, but only Maradona and I could go on. So I had almost an hour just kicking a ball around with him.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Come on the blues: Robbie Williams meets Maradona, with (left) Peter Schmeichel and (right) Alastair Campbell at the Unicef Celebrity Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford in 2006. Photograph: Mark Campbell/Rex/Shutterstock

He was “visualising”. He asked me how many people would be there. I told him 72,000. He looked so happy. Then he practised shooting and at one point smashed the ball into the corner of the net and ran around the stadium as if he had won the World Cup final. “What was that about?” I asked him. “Visualisation of the victory,” he said. He just loved the whole thing. We went back to the dressing rooms to get changed and it was one of the most surreal moments of my life… I am talking football in the showers at Old Trafford with Diego Maradona! He has a tattoo of Castro on his calf by the way, so I imagine he is a bit sad right now.

Back at the hotel the other players were so jealous it was ridiculous. He sat next to me on the team bus to the stadium and he was so excited it was fantastic to watch. Gullit had asked me to take my bagpipes to play before we went out and Maradona jumped on the physio table and started dancing. He played the whole 90 minutes – and scored, though we lost 2-1. He still had it. He and Gazza were the two stars, really.

At the end my son Rory said to me: “Dad, you were so out of your depth it was embarrassing.” I said, “I don’t care. I have played in front of a packed Old Trafford with Diego Maradona and I am going to talk about it till the day I die.”

Alastair Campbell’s Winners and How They Succeed, and the latest volume of his diaries, Outside, Inside are both available from bookshop.theguardian.com