Diego Maradona’s lawyer on Thursday demanded an investigation into the football legend’s death accusing medics of ‘criminal idiocy’ as grieving fans filed past his coffin at the presidential palace in Argentina.
According to Matias Morla, the World Cup winner was left for 12 hours without aid before he died of a heart attack aged 60, just two weeks after he was discharged from hospital following surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain.
He also claimed it was ‘criminal idiocy’ that an ambulance took 30 minutes to arrive and vowed that the circumstances surrounding Maradona’s death would be ‘investigated to the end’.
Maradona’s body was taken to the presidential palace in an ambulance Thursday morning, where it is lying in state, covered in an Argentinian flag and his signature number 10 shirt.
Thousands of fans streamed past Maradona’s body at the palace clapping, pumping their fists, and throwing flowers, flags, and football shirts at the foot of the casket on the first of three days of national mourning.
Maradona’s family and closest friends came at dawn before the start of the public wake, before scuffles briefly broke out as crowds jostled to enter and police had to hold people back.
The coffin procession took place just hours before Maradona is due to be buried on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the same Jardin de Paz cemetery where his parents were also laid to rest.
‘Maradona for me is the greatest thing that happened to me in life. I love him as much as my father and it’s like my old man died,’ Cristian Montelli, 22, one of the mourners at the palace today.
‘If I die young, hopefully upstairs I can play ball and watch a Boca game with him,’ added Montelli, who had a tattoo of Maradona’s face on his leg, after he saw the casket.
Others gathered last night outside the Buenos Aires stadium where Maradona began his career and which has since been renamed in his honour, setting up a makeshift shrine to celebrate the legendary World Cup winner.
Maradona’s death has also been keenly felt in Europe, especially in Naples where he steered an unfashionable side to two Italian league titles and where fans let off flares in tribute outside the stadium last night.
Diego Maradona: Football Legend Dies at 60 from Cardiac Arrest
November 25, 2020 Reading Time: 3min 0 0 0
Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60 after suffering a cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports.
The football legend had a heart attack at his home just two weeks after leaving hospital where he underwent surgery on a blot clot in his brain.
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career.
He played club football for Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others and was adored by millions for his brilliant skills.
Maradona was responsible for the infamous ‘Hand of God’ that eliminated England from the 1986 tournament.
Maradona left hospital on November 11 just eight days after being admitted for emergency brain surgery.
The iconic former Argentinian footballer was driven away from the private Olivos Clinic just before 6pm on Wednesday as hundreds of fans of photographers tried to get a glimpse of him.
Maradona was hospitalised the previous week and had to have an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.
Argentinian TV reporters travelling on motorbikes filmed the ambulance carrying him leaving before following the vehicle to transmit every inch of his journey.
His lawyer, Matias Morla has said that the 60-year-old would continue to receive treatment for alcohol dependency.
Maradona, who was well known for having a wild lifestyle during and after his playing days, had a gastric bypass operation to lose weight in 2005 and was once more hospitalised two years later for alcohol-induced hepatitis.
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and was the coach of Gimnasiay Esgrima in his home country, had been admitted to hospital on several occasions since his retirement. He almost died of cocaine-induced heart failure in 2000 and underwent years of rehabilitation.
He also fell ill at the last World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box when Argentina took on and beat Nigeria in Group D.
More to followTags:alcohol-induced hepatitis.Argentina win the World Cup in 1986BarcelonaBoca JuniorsDiego MaradonaFootball Legend Dies at 60greatest footballers of all timeHand of Godiconic former Argentinian footballerMaradona dies of Cardiac ArrestNapoliprivate Olivos ClinicHomeBREAKING
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