Buenos Aires, April 22:

Diego Maradona was transferred on Saturday to a private psychiatric clinic where he is to undergo treatment for alcohol addiction after being hospitalized twice in less than a month.

Alfredo Cahe, personal physician to the Argentine soccer hero, said the 46-year-old elected treatment at the private Avril Clinic in Buenos Aires that specializes in dependency treatment.

“He himself decided on this choice... to enter the clinic,” Cahe said on the Argentine broadcast network Todo Noticias.

Maradona led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title and is the country’s most revered soccer player and considered one of the greats of the sport alongside Brazil’s Pele. He has battled obesity and cocaine addiction since his 1997 retirement. His legion of fans watched anxiously after Maradona was admitted March 28 to one private clinic, the Guemes Sanatorium, for a 13-day stay for treatment of a hepatitis condition Cahe said was caused by excessive drinking.

Strong abdominal pains blamed on a relapse of the hepatitis condition forced Maradona to undergo another eight-day stay at a second clinic, Los Arcos, which he left on Saturday.

During the hospitalizations, Maradona’s condition was closely watched by the public and the clinics released near-daily statements on his health. But Cahe said neither he nor the Avril Clinic would not discuss Maradona’s treatment there.