Diego Maradona – soccer legend, Argentinean national team manager and now enemy of the state in Italy?
As if he didn’t have enough to contend with trying to get his underperforming team through to the FIFA 2010 World Cup, he now has to deal once again with the ghosts of misdeeds that allegedly took place during his time at Italian soccer club Napoli back in the eighties.
According to Italian authorities Maradona still owes the government 37 million Euros – about $54 million – in back taxes. Whenever he spotted in the country police officers are allowed to act upon a court ruling that decreed that they could seize any valuables carried or worn by the soccer legend that are “in plain sight”.
So why he went to an Italian health club last week sporting a pair of his trademark diamond earrings is anyone’s guess. Perhaps because he says they are only worth about 4000 euros, he thought that authorities might overlook them. But no, two officers entered the facility and promptly took them away. Less of a loss though than he suffered in 2002, when Italian policemen confiscated two pricey Rolex watches from him while he was watching a charity soccer match.
Maradona has always challenged the assertion that he owes the taxes, saying that his former Serie A club should have been paying them for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment