As Messi dominates World Cup, global war rages for Maradona's ghost

By Tariq Panja & Lucía Cholakian Herrera

 

In an army of Lionel Messis outside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Juan Manuel Garcia stood apart.

 

Like the other fans, he wore No. 10 on his back, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Garcia’s No. 10 belonged instead to Diego Maradona, who remains, in death, soccer’s ultimate superhero and an enduring symbol of Argentina.

 

Garcia, 40, from Rosario in central Argentina, was about to watch Messi extend his streak of scoring in every game of the 2026 World Cup as Argentina completed a sweep of the group stage. “Messi might be now be considered a better player, but Maradona is Argentina — and Argentina is Maradona,” he said.

 

 

That reverence is everywhere back home. Walls across Buenos Aires are covered with murals of Maradona, and his first club, Argentinos Juniors, has become a living shrine. Big rigs are trimmed with images of Maradona waiting for Messi in heaven. 

 

But while Messi’s genius pays off handsomely as sponsors line up for a piece of his celebrity, Maradona’s image is curiously absent from major campaigns. That is the result of a strange, yearslong legal battle spanning continents, jurisdictions and patent offices, one that has split his family apart and left investors fighting over the right to use his likeness. In death, Maradona’s legacy has proved as chaotic as his life.

 

Unlike Messi Maradona lived a life of excess — glorious highs shadowed by criticism and controversy. His death in 2020 brought an outpouring of grief from millions of Argentines, but it just as quickly gave way to recrimination and legal disputes that continue today.

 

A family at war

 

Maradona died without a will after undergoing brain surgery, leaving five acknowledged children. Former associates claimed he had willed the right to exploit his brand and likeness to his sisters rather than his children. A fraud case is ongoing against those associates, who are accused of illegally profiting from his name.

 

The rights his children insist belong to them under Argentine law have instead become the currency of a bitter family rupture and litigation. Contact between the children and their aunts now runs through lawyers and the courts. “Basically, they’ve decided to be against their nephews and nieces because of money,” said Jana Maradona, 30, one of his daughters.

 

At the center of the dispute is Sattvica, a company set up on Maradona’s behalf in 2015 by his lawyer and longtime aide, Matias Morla.

 

A ruling in January by a Buenos Aires court confirmed the children as heirs and ordered Sattvica to stop new business and route revenue from existing contracts into a court-supervised account. But those sales have continued, the lawyers for the children said.

 

On and off the field, the diminutive Maradona was box office: a symbol of rebellion, reverence and controversy like few others. 

 

Companies from Britain to Italy, India and Dubai have all been trying to do business with the Maradona brand. The New York Times spoke with six people who each claimed to have exclusive licensing deals. All of them believed having a piece of the Maradona legend could be worth a fortune.

 

Among the most prominent is Stefano Ceci, a Neapolitan pizzeria owner who became a close friend of Maradona’s and has spent years since his death signing licensing deals in his name. To prove his standing, Ceci produced a contract along with a suitcase of mementos from their life together — including a bag containing Maradona’s hair.

 

Lawyers for the family have argued in court proceedings that contract was altered to grant Ceci far more rights than intended. 

 

Many of Ceci’s deals have led to legal troubles and financial losses. The highest-profile case involved Electronic Arts and its “EA FC” video game franchise. 

 

EA signed Maradona in 2017, but after his death, competing claims over his likeness forced the company to pull him from the game; he was restored in February 2025 after EA made a deal with his children. 

 

The Italian club Napoli faced similar legal disputes for selling jerseys bearing Maradona’s image after his death.