A memorial site is planned in the centre of Buenos Aires as part of a foundation that was established by the children of football great Diego Maradona to celebrate the Argentinean player’s legacy.
According to its official website, the “M10 Memorial” is expected to open in 2025 in the popular Puerto Madero tourist region and can accommodate one million tourists annually.
“We want our father to be close to the love of the people, and to grant the wish of all those who want to bring him a flower,” his daughter Dalma Maradona said during a presentation broadcast on YouTube Thursday.
Argentines will have free access to the 1,000-square-meter site, but they will be able to have their photo displayed on the memorial’s “heritage wall” if they donate to the Maradona Foundation.
Dalma continued by saying that the foundation was established in order to “pay tribute to him (and) preserve his legacy” and is led by her and four of Maradona’s children from previous marriages.
For this prospective memorial site, a court earlier this month approved the relocation of Maradona’s bones from a cemetery to a mausoleum, allowing both locals and visitors to see “Argentina’s great idol”.
Maradona died in November 2020, aged 60, while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, and after decades of battling addictions to cocaine and alcohol.
Two weeks after his surgery, he was discovered dead in bed at a rented home in a posh area of Buenos Aires, where he had been taken after being released from the hospital.
It was discovered that he passed away from a heart attack.
However, a court is also looking into the possibility that Maradona’s death was caused by the medical staff’s incompetence.
