12/25/2020 8:30 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 12/25/2020 8:30 AM
It was just minutes after 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25, when the rumor became the scoop, the saddest news, at the moment when the world seemed to stop.
Diego Armando Maradona had died and nobody wanted to believe it.
Because only three weeks ago he had been operated on for a bruise on his head.
Because for the collective imagination, Diego, the one who had revived so many times, was immortal.
But that earthly god suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest in the house that had been rented to him in the San Andrés de Tigre neighborhood and could not be revived.
Since then, 30 days of pain, anger, chaos, legal claims and an inheritance have passed for which, without a will in between, five children are fighting (for now) and which promises several chapters.
The large white letters of four words on a black background filled the digital cover of Clarín:
"Diego Armando Maradona died."
While television projected the images of the champion in Mexico 1986 and his name was the only possible topic on the country's radios, the world replicated the news of the death of one of the most important soccer players in history and announced that the heart of the Ten
he had stopped
"due to cardiorespiratory arrest
.
"
In a shocked Argentina, social networks and WhatsApp were the means by which the unsuspecting found out that the news was real, that Diego Maradona had died.
Hours later, others - much less - circulated the photo of Pinier Funeral Home employees with the star's open coffin, something that during the wake was to be reserved for family and friends in an intimate early morning ceremony at the Casa Rosada.
That place that the Government offered and the family accepted became populated long before the doors were opened to the public at 6 in the morning, for a farewell of just 10 hours that was not enough and that caused chaos, the first of 30 days since the news that seemed incredible became real;
of the day that Diego Armando Maradona became eternal
.
11/26: vigil, express wake, riots, caravan and burial
In the midst of a pandemic, the streets attached to the Casa Rosada were filled with people.
When it was confirmed that Diego Armando Maradona's wake would be held at the Government House, it was not known how long it would last but it would start at 6. Therefore, from the night of the 25th the vigil began, while Claudia Villafañe and her daughters, Dalma and Gianinna;
Jana Maradona;
Verónica Ojeda;
the sisters of the Ten;
and the 1986 champions, part of the select group of the private ceremony, entered to see him off.
"Diego, dear, the people are with you."
The streets attached to the Casa Rosada were filled with people.
Photo: Juan Manuel Foglia
When the sun rose, the crowd that was queuing to parade down the stranded catwalk, in a short and quick tour of the interior of the room, burst into a shout: "Diego, dear, the people are with you."
Outside was the field that the coronavirus stopped: along Avenida de Mayo there were searches, shouts, police controls, people who snuck in, some raptors, drums, brave bars, songs.
Also out of control, when time ran out and people had to be persuaded to leave.
The Police repressed but a group of bars managed to enter the Patio de Las Palmeras, one of the emblematic sites of the Casa Rosada.
The wake was paused but the door did not open again.
At 5:42 p.m., Maradona's coffin left the Government House.
Thousands and thousands of people followed the car that transported Diego's remains for almost 40 kilometers to Bella Vista in a caravan at the height of the idol.
Hundreds of others waited in the vicinity of the Jardin cemetery, where he arrived at 19:00. There, only the inner circle was allowed to enter.
Unlike what happened during the day, the funeral, which ended minutes before 9:00 p.m., was intimate and silent.
Funeral procession of Diego Armando Maradona in the West Access.
Photo Lucia Merle
11/27: What happened to Maradona?
The pain over his death was followed by the inevitable question:
what happened to Diego Armando Maradona that fateful November 25?
Two days later, the timeline was formed from Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. to Wednesday at 1:10 p.m., when the ambulance doctor confirmed the death of Diez.
For her part, the nurse in charge of the shift tomorrow at the San Andrés neighborhood house, Gisela, acknowledged that she was "forced" to assert in a report that she had controlled Diego.
In addition to the judicial aspect, other news was growing in the media: the inheritance of an estate that nobody knows exactly how much it amounts to but would be around 50 million dollars, between money, properties, contracts, jewelry and luxury cars.
Meanwhile, Dalma Maradona took frivolity out of the matter by publishing on her Instagram account the photo in which she places daisies in the Diego de Napoli booties and a farewell letter: "I'm going to love and defend you all my life."
Tribute weekend
The tributes that had begun on the day of his death continued in stadiums around the world the weekend after.
First, with controversy, when the All Blacks remembered him before his traditional haka while Los Pumas only wore a barely perceptible black armband in the
Three Nations Tournament
match
.
On the other side of the world, in Argentina football did not stop but the Primera tournament changed its name and acquired the Diego Armando Maradona Cup.
That Sunday there was an exciting moment in the Bombonera, when Dalma took a place in his father's box and the Boca players dedicated the victory to him against Newell's.
A while before, Messi had traced Diego's only goal with Newell's shirt -in a friendly against Emelec in 1993- when he converted to Osasuna for the Spanish League, and celebrated with that Diez jacket during his time at the club Rosario.
Messi's special tribute to Maradona and the link with Newell's.
Photo REUTERS / Albert Gea
Luque, from the doctor and friend to suspect?
The week that began without Diego Maradona found news in the cause that put Leopoldo Luque in an uncomfortable place.
According to Dalma, Gianinna and Jana Maradona, the doctor was in charge of the Diez's health and that is why the Justice raided his house and his office.
On Monday 30, despite not being charged, Luque appeared spontaneously but could not access the file.
A day later, he requested an exemption from prison and on December 4 the judge of Guarantees 2 of San Isidro,
Orlando Díaz
, gave it to him.
The judge also asked the three prosecutors who sign the case -Laura Capra, Cosme Iribarren and Patricio Ferrari- to fix the cover, which in principle is "investigation of causes of death" although it could be modified as the case progresses. investigation, which also tracked down
Agustina Cosachov
, the psychiatrist who treated Diego Maradona and whose office was also raided.
"Diego was a person to whom it could happen sooner or later. Now, did he have criteria to have an ambulance at the door and a defibrillator? No. If that had been the case, the cardiologist would not have let him leave the clinic", Luque told the media Photo: Luciano Thieberger
The other cause: succession
Jana Maradona, the daughter that Diego had with
Valeria Sabalain
in 1996 and was recognized by the former soccer player in 2014, initiated the succession through her lawyer, Gustavo Pascual, in the National Civil Court number 44, in charge of Camilo Almeida Pons , the surrogate judge, who declared himself incompetent.
For this reason, on December 4, the case changed hands and fell in the 27th National Civil Court, in which Jorge Ignacio Sobrino Reig is deputy judge.
While there they will try to determine what is the patrimony that Maradona left and how much corresponds to each of the five recognized children, there are several processes for filiation that could end up increasing claims on the legacy.
In those days two interested parties appeared in the media:
Santiago Lara
and Magalí Gil.
Matías Morla and the Maradona brand
On December 4, it was also known that a Matías Morla company,
Sattvica
, is the owner of all the Maradona brands: Diego Maradona, Diego, Diegol, El Diez, D10S, La Mano de Dios and 30 other variants.
Although at first he did not think to give them up, it was later reported that his sister Kitty Maradona will manage them, although the proceeds will be distributed between Diego's sisters and the lawyer.
The pending tribute of Gymnastics: 5/12
The Gymnastics team visited Vélez (and beat him) just three days after Maradona's death.
But on December 5, in her first home game and with Dalma and Gianinna as guests, she paid an emotional tribute to her at the sisters' first public appearance together since the funeral.
Gymnastics tribute to Maradona and t-shirts to Dalma and Gianinna.
Photo dolores ripoll / Pool Argra
The Morla-Dalma Maradona battle: 7/12
The second week that started without Maradona had a strong media duel: Dalma and Matías Morla, which was joined by Gianinna.
"No one rushes my sister, least of all by questioning whether we are my father's daughters ... And finally thank me ...
Thank goodness you did not go to the wake because the people who passed you shouted 'murderer'
... I saved you a disappointment, "wrote the eldest of the sisters in her social networks.
The start of the fight with Morla: Diego's causes against Claudia
Diego Maradona and Claudia Villafañe in a file photo.
They got married in 1989 but met when they were 15 years old.
Dalma and Gianinna defended their mother when Diego initiated a legal case in October 2014 for
"alleged fraud, fraud and embezzlement"
, despite the fact that their father separated them from the subject when he requested an audit of all his assets.
But it was not the only cause that started him, with Morla as a lawyer.
On January 28, 2016, Villafañe was notified in Miami of the initiation of a civil case in which Maradona claimed objects valued at 3 million dollars and Claudia was indicted for "Fraud and undue retention."
"The FBI is investigating Claudia Villafañe," Morla said.
However, on April 6 Claudia was dismissed in the case for the appropriation of Maradona's objects, by order of the Buenos Aires criminal judge Karina Zucconi.
And on April 9, 2016, the US Court determined that there was no crime in the purchase of goods by Villafañe.
Everything seemed to close there.
But Diego's former partner - who had been dismissed in the criminal jurisdiction - received a setback at the end of July this year, when the Economic Criminal Chamber reversed a similar ruling in his favor.
The Supreme Court of the Nation defined that the case be focused on a single magistrate, in this case López Biscayart, who took charge of the entire judicial package of Maradona against his ex-wife.
"There is a story by Mrs. Villafañe and there is a reality. In her fictional story she said that she had won in each of her presentations. But in reality, in Justice, which is where the facts are demonstrated, they are giving us again the reason, "countered Morla.
While Claudia was silent, it was Dalma who appeared in the media to defend her.
In the absence of a will, a container: 9/12
On Wednesday 9, Diego's heirs who live in Argentina met, together with the lawyer Mario Baudry, to chart the way forward in the absence of a will, since in 2016 Maradona had revoked the ruling in favor of Dalma and Gianinna signed the July 19, 2012 in Buenos Aires.
As of that determination, incorporated in the Registry of Notaries of the City of Buenos Aires, in the Division "Acts of last will", all his children were left on equal terms before the law with regard to succession.
The next day, a container that arrived from Dubai with belongings treasured by Maradona was placed in the custody of a storage space (storage and storage rental) called UNIBOX, on José Ingenieros street 1600, in the town of Beccar.
The role of Maradona's sisters: complainants and supported by Morla
On November 30, Claudia, Ana, María Rosa and Rita Maradona, casually represented by Matías Morla, had asked to be “affected individuals”.
And on December 11, the San Isidro Criminal Court of Appeals and Guarantees accepted it.
Diego, with his brothers at the baptism of Diego Matías, in 2019.
Three weeks after death, a testimony of a Morla employee is added
"I am an employee of Matías Morla."
This is how Maximiliano Trimarchi identified himself to the police who raided his house in the early hours of Tuesday, December 15.
There, the troops hijacked his cell phone to assess it.
The role of Trimarchi, brother of Morla's partner Marcelo Trimarchi, was to be a driver at Maradona's disposal, not only to transport people but also merchandise.
Autopsy: 12/23
Two days after his death, the result of the autopsy was known to Diego Armando Maradona and it was discovered that, at first glance, they gave him psychotropic drugs but no medication for his heart disease, which caused death.
The toxicological and histopathological report released by the team of prosecutors revealed a highly complex clinical scenario.
In addition, he confirmed that
he had not consumed alcohol or illegal drugs
prior to his death.
"All the sons of bitches waiting for my dad's autopsy to have drugs, marijuana and alcohol. I'm not a doctor and I saw him very swollen. The robotic voice. It wasn't his voice. It was happening and I was the CRAZY INSANE," he downloaded Gianinna on Twitter.
For his part, the histopathological study showed that Diego suffered from five conditions:
cirrhosis, exacerbated chronic kidney failure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, atheromatous coronary artery disease and chronic lung disease
with acute signs compatible with heart failure.
The coffin where the remains of Diego Maradona rested.
Photo: Presidency.
A long road ahead in Justice
The investigation that will determine how Maradona died and if there were those responsible will be a difficult mission.
And it will not be the only one: Justice must also resolve the succession in the absence of a will.
You will also have to figure out how and who will run the Maradona brand.
Likewise, we will have to wait to see how the cases that Diego had against Claudia Villafañe and the filiation trials progress.
Look also
Cirrhosis, heart and kidney problems: Diego Maradona's complex state of health
Diego Maradona was not given medication for his heart problem