L’Equipe: the Versailles court decided it, after the appeal of the heirs
A mural of late Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona is pictured in the Quartieri Spagnoli district of Naples on March 16, 2023. – An incredible 18 points clear at the top of Serie A, it’s surely only a matter of time until southern Italy’s biggest club win the Scudetto for the first time since 1990, when Diego Maradona was still strutting his stuff in sight of Mount Vesuvius. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)
Diego Maradona’s heirs won. They obtained the seizure and ban on the sale of the Adidas Golden Ball of France Football awarded in 1986 to the Argentine legend. This was decided by the court of Versailles. This means, writes L’Equipe, that justice will keep the trophy for the best player of the World Cup, stolen in 1989 and then found in Paris, while the Central Office for the fight against trafficking in cultural goods (Ocbc) will complete his investigations.
The Aguttes auction house had announced on Sunday the postponement of the auction until further notice, due to a “controversial climate” and “uncertainties”, linked to the doubts expressed by Maradona’s heirs on the way in which Abdelhamid B. would have purchased the Ballon d’Or in 2016: a lucky purchase in a “hardware store”, the daughters of the Pibe de oro don’t believe him.
“We are satisfied with this decision, which is consistent with our requests and reassures my clients,” explains Gilles Moreu, lawyer from the Paradox firm, appointed by Maradona’s heirs. “My clients will now appeal to the court, believing that if the Ballon d’Or is the one awarded to their father in 1986, it should go back to them. Abdelhamid B. cannot, in our opinion, and given the circumstances of the acquisition as claimed by the latter, be qualified as a purchaser in good faith”.
Napolista ilnapolista © all rights reserved
