Maradona family testifies against former manager
“He only said lies. With those words he hurt us; these are terrible accusations that have caused us sadness.”
This is what stated—while testifying in a courtroom in Rome—the late Diego Armando Maradona’s ex-wife, Claudia Villafañe, and the football legend’s daughters, Dalma and Giannina, in the trial against former manager Stefano Ceci, who is accused of aggravated defamation, CE Report quotes ANSA.
The case concerns statements made by Ceci in an interview on October 30, 2021 “regarding legal disputes over the exploitation of Maradona’s image rights.”
In the interview, the defendant said: “I have always won in court and I certainly do not fear the parasites who exploited Maradona when he was alive and want to exploit him even after his death.”
In the conversation with an Italian newspaper, the former manager also stated that Diego “had to change four houses just in the last year, only to end up being taken to die in the jungle.”
“I felt sick because of these statements,” said Maradona’s ex-wife—assisted by lawyer Francesco Caroleo Grimaldi—before the judge.
“Everything concerning me and my daughters is echoed around the world. I don’t understand why Ceci said these things, because he wasn’t there, he wasn’t present. Is he accusing me of stealing Diego’s memorabilia? When Diego and I separated, his things stayed in my house, and a judge in Argentina recognized them as mine. I never sold any of that.”
For their part, the daughters stated that “when our dad died, we found out he had signed a contract with Ceci for image rights. He told us he had set aside money for us heirs, which we never received.”
