Maradona’s Ballon d’Or auction was halted due to an ownership dispute

Buenos Aires (dpa)
A French court supported a request submitted by the heirs of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona to stop a planned auction for the Golden Ball award that the late star won as the best player in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The French sports newspaper L’Equipe reported that the Versailles Court of Appeal overturned a previous court ruling that allowed the auction to continue, despite the opposition of Maradona’s daughters in a dispute over ownership.
Until the final ruling on the ownership dispute is issued, the Court of Versailles ordered a judicial receivership of the award. The award remained missing for decades, and it was said that it was stolen from a bank vault in the Italian city of Naples in 1989, when Maradona was playing for the southern Italian team.
News reports revealed that the award appeared again in 2016 when a coin collector bought it for a small sum of money along with other prizes, without knowing at the time the identity of that prize. Two expert reports later concluded that this award was the 1986 Ballon d’Or, while Maradona’s two daughters claimed ownership of it as the player’s heirs, and said that it could not be sold at public auction. Maradona led the Argentine national team to win the 1986 World Cup for the second time in the history of the Tango Dancers team, following its 3-2 victory over the then West German national team in the final match of the tournament.