Diego Maradona Dies at 60: His Life, Death and the Tributes

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Originally published 2020-11-26.

Diego Maradona Dies at 60: Tributes to a Football Legend

Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentine forward who captained his country to the 1986 World Cup and is widely ranked among the greatest footballers ever, died on 25 November 2020 at the age of 60. He died of heart failure at a rented house in Dique Luján, in the Tigre area north of Buenos Aires, where he was recovering from brain surgery performed earlier that month. At the time he was still working in football, as head coach of the Argentine club Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.

News of his death set off an extraordinary wave of grief, from the streets of Buenos Aires and Naples to the social media accounts of Pelé, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé. Below is what is known about how he died, the career that made him a legend, the controversies that shadowed him, and the court case that followed.

How Maradona died

In early November 2020, days after his 60th birthday, Maradona had surgery to remove a blood clot on the surface of his brain, a subdural haematoma. He was discharged to continue his recovery at home under the care of a private medical team. On the morning of 25 November he went into cardiac arrest, and efforts to revive him failed.

According to autopsy details reported by CNN en Español, citing a source in Argentina's justice system, the cause was acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid in the lungs, brought on by a worsening of chronic heart failure. Heart failure does not mean the heart stops suddenly; it describes a heart that can no longer pump blood well enough, which can cause fluid to back up into the lungs and other tissues. It can be managed for years, but it becomes dangerous when it is not closely monitored.

Argentina's government declared three days of national mourning, and his coffin lay in state at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, where huge crowds queued to say goodbye. The Argentine Football Association, through its president Claudio Tapia, paid tribute to "our legend" and said he would always be in their hearts.

The career that made him a legend

Maradona was born in 1960 in Lanús and grew up in Villa Fiorito, a poor district on the edge of Buenos Aires. He made his professional debut for Argentinos Juniors just before turning 16 and went on to play for:

  • Argentinos Juniors (1976–1981)
  • Boca Juniors (1981–1982 and 1995–1997)
  • Barcelona (1982–1984)
  • Napoli (1984–1991)
  • Sevilla (1992–1993)
  • Newell's Old Boys (1993–1994)

Napoli is where he became a near-religious figure. The southern Italian club had never won the Serie A title; with Maradona it won two, in 1986–87 and 1989–90, along with the UEFA Cup in 1989. For many Neapolitans those trophies were a victory of the poorer south over the rich clubs of the north. After his death the club renamed its home ground the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Mexico 1986 and the "Hand of God"

Maradona's peak came at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he captained Argentina to the title and was named the tournament's best player. The quarter-final against England, played four years after the two countries fought over the Falkland Islands, produced the two most famous goals of his life within four minutes.

The first came when he rose with England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and knocked the ball into the net with his hand. The referee did not see it and the goal stood. Afterwards Maradona said it was scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God", and he later admitted the handball openly, describing it as a kind of symbolic revenge for the war. The second goal was a run from his own half past several England players before he rounded Shilton and scored. In a 2002 FIFA online poll it was voted the Goal of the Century. Argentina won 2–1.

Note that older accounts sometimes call that match a semi-final; it was the quarter-final. Argentina went on to beat Belgium in the semi-final and West Germany 3–2 in the final.

In 2000 Maradona won FIFA's internet vote for Player of the Century by a wide margin. FIFA then added a second award decided by a committee of football experts, which went to Pelé, so the two shared the honour. He later coached Argentina from 2008 to 2010, taking the team to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup, where they lost 4–0 to Germany.

Addiction, bans and a life of controversy

Maradona's brilliance on the pitch was matched by a turbulent life off it. He struggled for years with cocaine addiction. In 1991, while at Napoli, he failed a drug test for cocaine and served a 15-month ban, after which he left Italy.

At the 1994 World Cup in the United States he tested positive for ephedrine, a banned stimulant, and was sent home after Argentina's first two matches, against Greece and Nigeria. Maradona maintained that his trainer had given him an over-the-counter energy supplement without realising it contained the substance. Claims at the time that his performance proved he was using drugs to play better were speculation; the test itself is the documented fact.

He also had long-running problems with alcohol and weight, and was hospitalised several times in the 2000s, including for heart problems. Those health issues became central to arguments about his final weeks.

Maradona, the Vatican and Pope Francis

After his death, many of Maradona's more colourful public moments resurfaced. One of the most quoted was his reaction to a visit to the Vatican in 2000. Struck by the gilded ceilings, he contrasted the wealth on display with the Church's talk of caring for poor children, and, according to Insider, summed up his advice as "Sell the ceilings, mate!" On a later visit in 2016 he retold the story to reporters in much cruder terms, saying that what he saw back then had made him stop believing.

He also said, however, that meeting Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine and a lifelong football fan, had brought him back to the Church. The two met several times. When Maradona died, the Vatican said the pope remembered those meetings with affection and was praying for him, as reported by Reuters.

Maradona also liked to joke about his self-belief. A line often attributed to him has him saying that his mother thought he was the best, and that he had been raised always to believe what his mother told him.

How the football world said goodbye

Tributes poured in within minutes of the announcement. Pelé, his great rival for the title of the best ever, wrote that he had lost a great friend and the world had lost a legend, adding that he hoped they would one day play football together in heaven.

Cristiano Ronaldo, then at Juventus, called Maradona one of the best of all time and an unparalleled magician who had left too soon but left a legacy without limits.

Kylian Mbappé, of Paris Saint-Germain and France, changed his profile picture to Maradona and thanked him for the joy he had given the world, saying he would remain in football history forever.

Barcelona, where Maradona spent two injury-hit but memorable seasons, posted a simple message of thanks.

The trial over his medical care

Questions about whether Maradona received proper care during his recovery quickly turned into a criminal case. In 2021 a medical board appointed by prosecutors concluded that his treatment had been inappropriate, deficient and reckless. Seven health professionals, including his neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and his psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, were charged with negligent homicide, a charge similar to involuntary manslaughter. All have denied wrongdoing, and their lawyers argue that his death was the result of decades of serious health problems.

The first trial opened in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, in March 2025, but collapsed after about two months when one of the three judges, Julieta Makintach, stepped down after it emerged she had taken part in a documentary filmed during the proceedings. A new trial before different judges began in San Isidro in April 2026, with close to 100 witnesses expected. An eighth defendant, a nurse, is due to face a separate jury trial.

Whatever the courts decide, Maradona's place in football history is secure: a player of almost unmatched skill, deeply flawed and fiercely loved, whose death felt to millions like the end of an era.

Sources: Wikipedia: Diego Maradona; The Gazette, April 2026: New trial over Diego Maradona's death begins in Argentina; contemporary reporting by CNN en Español, Insider and Reuters linked in the text.

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