French Justice prohibits the sale of the 1986 World Cup Ballon d’Or
This Wednesday, French Justice banned the sale of the 1986 World Cup Ballon d’Or won by soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona. He does it at the request of the family of the footballer, who has now died almost four years ago. The award was going to be auctioned tomorrow, June 6, at the French auction house Aguttes, in what would have been a record-breaking betting contest, but the judge has ordered it to be seized until the journey that this object has undergone to reach its destination is resolved. where he is, amidst suspicions of robbery. The auction is therefore suspended sine die, until it is clear who is the legal owner of the trophy.
The lawsuit of Maradona’s heirs
The Court of Appeal of Versailles has endorsed the lawsuit filed by Maradona’s heirs, who allege that the World Cup Ballon d’Or, which reappeared in 2016 after almost three decades missing, had been stolen from the safe of a bank in Naples. in Italy, in 1989. At that time Maradona was a star of the Italian team, where he played between 1984 and 1992. In 1986 the Argentine star won the World Cup in Mexico ’86 with his team and, as the best player in the competition, he was awarded this Ball of gold.
The seizure of the Ballon d’Or
The seizure of the Ballon d’Or, an unusual measure, responds to the Maradona family’s fear that the award will disappear again. The object, in the possession of the Aguttes auction house, will pass into the hands of a Justice officer who will seize it until the dispute over the ownership of the Ball is resolved.
The value of the Ballon d’Or
Until the appeal presented by the Maradonas, a French-Algerian named Abdelhamid B. was considered the legal owner of the trophy, in France, for having purchased it in good faith – he did not know that it was Maradona’s Ballon Gold – and because after this acquisition Three years passed without anyone from the Maradona family claiming it. Abdelhamid B. had bought the trophy for 1.20 euros at a second-rate auction in Paris and could sell it through Aguttes for more than 10 million euros, according to estimates from the same auction house.
