The trial will once again try to determine whether Maradona’s medical team was responsible for his death in November 2020.
Published on 14 April 2026
A new trial over the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, a year after the first trial failed due to a scandal involving a judge.
Maradona, considered one of the world’s greatest players of all time, died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery at a private residence.
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He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – two weeks after surgery.
The new trial, which will hear from some 120 witnesses, will again seek to determine whether Maradona’s medical team was responsible for his death.
Seven members of his medical team were charged with manslaughter by negligence in the trial that began on 11 March. The defendants have denied allegations of “simple murder with ultimate intent” in their treatment of Maradona. He was facing a prison sentence of eight to 25 years.
The medical team was blamed by prosecutors over the conditions of his recovery in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre, which prosecutors described as gross negligence.
But two and a half months into his trial, after several hours of tearful testimony from witnesses including Maradona’s children, the proceedings stalled.
The trial was canceled in May 2025 after it emerged that one of the judges overseeing the trial, Julieta Mackintoch, had engaged in a documentary in the corridors of the Buenos Aires court and in her office, which violated judicial rules. He was later impeached.
The defense says Maradona, who struggled with cocaine and alcohol addiction, died of natural causes.
The trial is expected to last until July.
News of the 1986 World Cup champion’s death brought thousands of Argentines onto the streets in mourning amid the COVID pandemic.
Acclaimed as one of the greatest and most iconic players to ever grace a football pitch, Maradona struggled for many years with drug addiction and ties to the Naples underworld.
His performance in the 1986 World Cup tournament has since become a sporting legend. He scored his controversial first goal in the quarterfinals, dubbed the “Hand of God”, as it led to Argentina’s victory over England – an opponent with whom the country had fought a war four years earlier over the Falkland Islands, known as the Islas Malvinas in Spanish.
But Maradona’s second goal of that match, which saw him dodge several England opponents from his own half to score the decisive second goal, was spectacular.
In 2000, football governing body Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) named Maradona one of its two “Players of the Century”, along with Brazil’s Pelé.
