Castro on Diego’s popular TV show

Maradona, looking much slimmer and younger than he did on previous stays in Cuba after having stomach stapling surgery in Colombia, said interviewing Castro was his dream since before signing with the Argentine channel to do the show.

He said he considered the Cuban President ‘‘the greatest of all who decide things in the world.’’

Castro, dressed in his typical olive green uniform, used his appearance on Cuban television to expound on a variety of subjects, from regional politics to Hurricane Wilma’s assault on the Caribbean island this week.

The two men have known each other for more than a decade, and Maradona in recent years has received treatment for drug addiction during several lengthy stays in Cuba. He bears a tattoo of Castro’s face on one leg, and both say they are friends and admirers of one another.

La noche del 10 launched in August, marks Maradona’s return to the limelight since he retired from soccer in 1997 amid cocaine addiction and other grave health problems.