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Case file s520 · Music and sport · 2020
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2020
Diego Maradona: Argentina celebrando copa (cropped)
Diego Maradona. Unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
25 November 2020
Place
Dique Luján, Tigre, Buenos Aires province · Argentina
Field
football · Sport on the timeline
Legal tradition
Argentine civil law (succession court in La Plata) · Civil law
Historical event
The 2025 collapse of the trial over his death after a judge's documentary scandal
Religion
Diego Maradona: Catholic (recorded as Argentine Roman Catholics, Catholic socialists on Wikipedia)
Music and sportSecret children and false heirsBodies, bones and burialsNowLatin AmericaArgentina

Diego Maradona left five recognised heirs, more paternity claims, and two trials over his death and his name

Diego Maradona died at 60 in a rented house in Tigre and was buried at Jardín de Bella Vista cemetery. In December 2020 a court ordered his body preserved because a woman, Magalí Gil, claimed to be his daughter. In March 2021 a La Plata judge named five sole heirs: Dalma, Gianinna, Jana, Diego Jr. and Diego Fernando. About six other paternity claims were filed, four of them from Cuba. His children accused his former lawyer, Matías Morla, his sisters Claudia and Rita, and three others of running the "Maradona" trademarks through a company, Sattvica S.A., without handing them to the estate. On 28 April 2026 a Buenos Aires judge sent all six to oral trial for fraudulent administration. Seven members of his medical team went on trial over his death in 2025. On 29 May 2025 that trial was annulled after Judge Julieta Makintach was found to have taken part in a documentary about it, "Justicia Divina." She was removed from the bench in November 2025. The retrial opened in San Isidro on 14 April 2026. Closing arguments began on 22 October 2026, with a verdict expected from December 2026. A court authorised moving his remains to a mausoleum in Puerto Madero in October 2024; no move has been reported.

What the law took from it

Brand rights held in a company outside the estate can slip away from the heirs unless ownership of that company is documented.

Family version vs. the record

Magalí Gil says she is his daughter; an informal DNA test with his sister showed a low probability, and she has not been recognised as an heir†.

infobae.com
Sources
  1. lacapital.com.arPress
  2. lanacion.com.arPress
  3. batimes.com.arPress
  4. infobae.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Diego Maradona left five recognised heirs, more paternity claims, and two trials over his death and his name,” story s520, https://www.celebrity.estate/diego-maradona-2020, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportSecret children and false heirsBodies, bones and burialsNowLatin AmericaCivil lawArgentina