In November 2020, Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona died from a heart attack and shocked the whole world. The storm that he left behind for his family was just as strong as the physical symptoms of his death. Now, several months later, 16 members of his family are tussling over his £37 ($52) million fortune – mainly because Maradona died without leaving a testament behind.
Maradona’s Fortune
At the age of 60, the winner of the 1987 World Cup was known to be quite rich. He made a lot of money from his football career, but over the course of his life, he also made a few investments.
Court papers showed that he had cash in banks from Dubai, Switzerland, and Buenos Aires, along with a significant number of properties all over the globe. Official court papers showed that his fortune was around $50 million, but other reports said it could even be up to $100 million.
With that kind of fortune, you’d expect that he’d leave such wealth to his children. The legend is said to have had 11 of them, although only 5 have been acknowledged to the moment of his death. Those who were not accepted would have to go through a paternity test – something that could prove quite difficult, considering that they would now have to exhume the body.
That being said, at the moment of his death, he had no testament – not even one that included his first daughters, Dalma and Gianinna. They did not know the exact reason, but one thing was sure: Maradona seemed to be abandoned.
A Story of Disinheritance
In 2019, Gianina Maradona, one of Diego’s daughters, made an alert to the world on her Instagram account. She said that her father was dying and was asking that the world would pray for him and his recovery. What the world didn’t know was that since Maradona has battled alcohol and cocaine addiction, he was showing signs of severe illness.
The words weren’t appreciated by the “Fluff,” so he made a video to clarify that he is as healthy as ever and that he did not know what his daughter meant in that post. He claimed that he “wasn’t dying, was very much alive, and he was just resting peacefully because he was working.”
In the video, he also announced that his five acknowledged children (Dalma, Gianinna, Diego, Jana, and Fernando) were disinherited. He also said that he wasn’t going to leave anything to them and that he was going to donate everything to charity. However, Diego didn’t know one thing. According to Francis M., Springfield will attorney, the Argentinian law only allowed him to donate one-third of his assets through a testament – the rest going to his family.
The Battle for Fortune Continues
In the end, Maradona died without leaving a will behind – just his words on the video. That being said, his family is still going through an inheritance war. It is not yet clear why his daughters (and all of his children, for that matter) were taken out of the testament. It may have been a whim, or he may have had a good reason – but one thing we know is that Diego always did what he wanted.