Diego Maradona's heirs have initiated legal action in France to halt the contentious sale of the Argentine football legend's "Golden Ball" trophy from the 1986 Mexico World Cup.
The trophy, awarded to the tournament's best player, had been missing for decades before being discovered by an antique dealer in Paris.
It is scheduled to be auctioned by Aguttes in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, on June 6.
Lawyers for Maradona's family, who died in 2020 at the age of 60, argue that the trophy, expected to fetch millions, rightfully belongs to his five heirs.
In 2022, Maradona's Argentina jersey from the 1986 tournament sold for nearly $9.3 million, while the "Hand of God" ball from the quarter-final against England sold for $2.4 million later that year.
According to the Maradona family, the trophy given to their father in November 1986 at the Lido Cabaret in Paris was stolen during a bank robbery three years later in Naples.
The player's family claims they only discovered a few weeks ago that it was to be auctioned and immediately took legal action to try to reclaim it.
"The family aims to recover this ball, the Argentine people want to recover this ball," lawyer Lola Chunet told a court in Nanterre, outside Paris.
Lawyer Arthur Gaulier, representing Aguttes, argued: "Attempting, 35 years after an alleged theft, to claim property without ever having filed a complaint, is an opportunistic approach that justice cannot condone."
On Thursday, lawyers for the auction house and the trophy seller claimed that the Maradona family had not provided proof of a complaint filed at the time.
Maximilien Aguttes, director of the auction house, said one of the "legends" circulating about the award was that Maradona forgot it at the Lido the evening it was awarded.
The antique dealer who acquired the trophy said he bought it at an auction in 2016 "in the same hardware lot" of hundreds of trophies, most of little value.
"He bought them for 500 euros excluding fees," detailed the seller's lawyer, Marine Le Bihan, at a price which valued each trophy at 1.20 euros, before realizing that one could be Maradona's "Golden Ball."
During his research to prove its authenticity, he contacted one of the footballer's lawyers, insisted Le Bihan.
The court will decide on May 30 whether the sale can take place.
At the same time, a criminal complaint was filed, which the prosecution confirmed to AFP.
The trophy has nothing to do with the Ballon d'Or awarded by France Football magazine to the best player of the year.
