“They violently stole the Ballon d’Or from my father and he did not enjoy it”

Gianinna Maradona He admitted on Friday that he was “very hurt” by the decision of the French Justice, which on Thursday allowed the auction of his father’s 1986 Ballon d’Or. Diego Armando Maradona, who cannot enjoy life because it was stolen “violently” in 1989.

“We learned of the resolution and we are deeply hurt by the memory of our father. We have appealed the resolution and we are very confident that the decision will be overturned, because it has been proven that my father’s Ballon d’Or was stolen. and that the theft is in the public domain ,” Gianinna, already was born in 1989 from the union of Maradona and Claudia Villafañe.

Purchased in 2016

Maradona’s heirs, included Gianinna and her sister Dalma, They asked the French Justice to stop the Ballon d’Or auction scheduled for June 6 at the Aguttes house, an event that will take place in Neuilly sur Seine (outside Paris). Maradona received this award after winning the 1986 World Cup in Mexico with the Argentina team.

The object, of which the trace has been lost for decades, was acquired at a ridiculous price (1.20 euros) by a small collector at a second-rate Paris auction in 2016.

“As a matter of justice, and for the memory of our father, it is up to the heirs to claim what belongs to us. It was violently stolen when he did not enjoy it,” he added. Gianinna, who gave Maradona a grandson as a result of his relationship with ‘If Aguero

The auction can be a record

If it finally goes to auction, Maradona’s award may exceed the 10 million euros and be the most expensive sports object in history.

The plaintiffs, represented in France by the lawyer Gilles Moreu, They insist that the trophy was stolen from their father in 1989, in a coordinated attack by the Italian mafia on the Banco della Provincia, in Naples, and they judge that there was no good faith on the part of the object’s current owner, a small Called by the Franco-Algerian collector Abdelhamid B.

However, the Justice of France this Thursday agreed with the defense of Abdelhamid B. and at the house of Aguttes, who believed that there was good faith on the part of the buyer, because he did not know that he was getting the Ballon d’Or.

Furthermore, both parties maintain that the minimum period of three years has passed without anyone from the Maradona family claiming the matter, so, according to French law, Abdelhamid B. is the owner.

In parallel with the heirs’ process, the Central Office of Traffic in Cultural Assets of France is investigating whether there has been a crime of “concealing a stolen object” by the collector.