Diego Maradona is known for so many things but one thing that every lover of football can agree to is the fact that he is one of the greatest footballers of all time. But what is Diego Maradona‘s net worth? This is the question in the heart of Maradona’s fans at this point.
Looking at Diego Maradona’s football history, one can easily assume that the retired footballer turned football manager should be one of the richest ex-footballers of all time. Unfortunately for the one time Fifa World Cup winner, he is not as financially rich as expected.
Maradona’s early life?
Before we start looking at Diego Maradona‘s net worth, let us take a look at who Maradona was before fame came. The 60-year-old football icon was born on October 30, 1960, in Buenos Aires, Argentina into a very poor family. He has 6 siblings who were all living in a small house on the outskirts of the city.
Just like many families like theirs, they were all in search of greener pastures which they didn’t find until the football talent of Diego Maradona was spotted.
An Argentine club, Argentinos Juniors, gave Maradona his first professional contract when he was just 15-year-old. From that point, he became the breadwinner of his family. The financial fortunes of his family improved in 1981 when another Argentine side Boca Juniors signed him for $4 million. At the end of the first year at the club, Spanish giants, FC Barcelona came for him and signed him for a then world transfer record fee of $7.6 million.
He enjoyed fame at the club but the fame was overshadowed by the fights he had on the pitch and drug addiction. One of the biggest incidents that cut short his time at Barcelona was when he used his knee to knock out an Athletic Bilbao player during a match in 1984. The incident caused a full-blown riot in the stadium and forced Barcelona to let him go.
Afterward, Italian Serie A club, Napoli, came for him and bought Maradona for a then transfer record of $10.5 million in 1984. He had the best of his football career at the club winning numerous individual and club titles including two successive Serie A titles. It was during this time at Napoli that he led Argentina to win the 1986 Fifa World Cup.
Things got sour for Maradona between 1990 and 1991. First, it was in the 1990 World Cup where he was kicked out of the tournament for testing positive for Cocaine. In 1991, he was kicked out of Napoli after testing positive again for the same drug. From there, drug abuse, womanizing, partying, and other negative lifestyles forced his football career to experience a steady decline which he never recovered from.
He went on to play for Sevilla for just a year and subsequently returned to Argentina to play for Newell’s Old Boys and then retired from professional football at Boca Juniors in 1997.
His negative lifestyle especially his reliant on drugs made him suffer a series of health conditions, like obesity, even before he retired from professional football. He is currently recovering from a brain surgery carried out to treat subdural hematoma (A pool of blood between the brain and its outermost covering).
What is Diego Maradona’s net worth?
It will be almost impossible to determine the exact net worth of Diego Maradona but from all indications and available data, Maradona possibly worth about $500,000.
This figure can be said to be feasible because Maradona did not spend his football career like most former football stars. He lived an extravagant life which included partying, drug abuse, womanizing, and buying jewelry. He continued with this lifestyle even after he retired from football and then went into coaching until recently when he had to be modest and more careful with his lifestyle due to persistent health challenges.
Besides that, his lifestyle earned him a couple of lawsuits and fines which could have drained him financially. The little he has to save, he spent it on medical care and a couple of surgeries.
His Diego Maradona still rich and how is he earning a living?
From all indications, Diego Maradona can not be said to be so rich in financial terms. He is enjoying the goodwill that comes with being a national asset and a world-renowned football legend. So, he could be living comfortably on royalties, honorarium, and other stipends from well-wishers and fans.
One huge instance that can prove that Maradona is not as rich as he should is the lingering tax invasion case in Italy. Recall that in March 2009, Italian tax officials accused Maradona that he still owed the government €37 million in local taxes. The officials announced that €23.5 million of the debt was accrued interest on his original debt.
According to the officials, Maradona has paid only €42,000, two luxury watches, and a set of earrings. Reports claimed that Maradona had said that he would not do more than that because the Italian government did not treat him well while in the country (between 1984 and 1991).
On the other hand, Maradona has been coaching since 1994 which means that he has been earning as a coach. Before he became the head coach of Gimnasia de La Plata in 2019, he reportedly earns about $150,000-per month as the head coach of Dorados de Sinaloa between 2018 and 2019. Recall that he has also served as the head coach of Argentina national team (2008–2010).
His current salary at Gimnasia de La Plata is not known but his contact with the club will reportedly expire at the end of the current Argentina season (2019-2020).
Though Maradona might have enjoyed some controversial past, he still earns money from endorsements and rent fees on some of his properties. In most parts of his football career, Maradona enjoyed stipends from sportswear company Puma (until now) and Coca Cola. In the subsequent period of his life, he enjoyed stipends from Konami, Hublot, and FIFA (when he acted as one of the ambassadors of the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia).
All these have been means the football icon has been earning a living aside from coaching jobs and appearance fees. Hence, he might not be as rich as he should but he still has enough to live comfortably.
