Luxury cars, cigars and a villa among Diego Maradona items on sale

From a necktie to two BMW cars to paintings —not to mention his parents’ home —nearly 90 items once belonging to late Argentine football superstar Diego Maradona were on the virtual auction block on Sunday in an international sale run from Buenos Aires.

“At this time, we have 1,120 people registered and in a position to bid in the auction,” Adrian Mercado, the sale’s organiser, told AFP before the  auction.

The 87 lots on offer had minimum bids ranging from $50 to $900,000, he said. The sale was ordered by Argentine authorities in agreement with the heirs to the 1986 world champion’s estate.

“The children made a great selection of his things,” Mercado said. “The most emotional, items with great memories, of great passion, will be kept by the family.”

The house being auctioned, in Buenos Aires’ Villa Devoto neighbourhood, is the one Maradona gave to his parents in the 1980s when ‘Number 10’ was playing for professional team Boca Juniors.

“The years passed by, the clubs, the stories and the World Cups, but the house on Cantilo (street) was always Maradona’s place,” reads a message on the website promoting the auction.

Far from the modest home in a poor neighbourhood where Maradona was born in 1960, the villa he gave his parents and where they lived until his death on November 25, 2020, is comfortable if not luxurious and includes a swimming pool. A minimum bid of $900,000 has been set for it.

Paying off debts

Also on offer are two BMW automobiles, 2017 and 2016 models, with respective minimum bids of $225,000 and $165,000.

There is also a Hyundai van, with a $38,000 minimum, and a two-bedroom apartment in the resort town of Mar del Plata (250 miles, or 400 kilometers, south of Buenos Aires), with a base price of $65,000.

Also for sale are a treadmill Maradona used when he lived in Dubai while coaching a team there ($3,500 minimum), a photo of the football star with late Cuban leader Fidel Castro ($400), and a humidor of Cuban cigars ($300).

A handwritten letter signed by Castro, however, will not be sold despite earlier expectations it would be.

Neckties, caps, boots and sports gear, as well as six televisions, furniture, gym equipment, paintings and photos round out the items being auctioned by order of Judge Luciana Tedesco.

Proceeds will go to pay the estate’s debts and expenses, but not to Maradona’s heirs. The courts will decide how to dispose of any unsold items.