Want to buy a Rolex watch worn by football legend Diego Maradona? Italian
authorities are to auction off two of them, which police stripped from a
visiting Maradona this week to help pay off his 31 million euros (21.3 million
pounds) in back taxes.
Maradona ran up the debt as a player with the
Italian club Napoli, which he led to two Italian league titles in 1987 and 1990.
He says the club should have paid the taxes.
Hours after Maradona arrived for a benefit match on Tuesday near the southern
port city of Naples, the tax police surprised him with a judicial order to seize
anything of value "within plain sight".
Police officer Geremia Guercia said the only things of notable worth were his
Rolex watches -- one strapped to either wrist. They had no jewels, but they can
go underwater, he said.
"Their intrinsic value is 10,000 euros," Guercia told Reuters on Wednesday.
"But when you put it on auction, saying it was once worn by the great player
Maradona, it would be normal for the price to go up."
Maradona, staying at a hotel in Naples, declined to comment.
It was not his first run-in with Italian tax authorities. Last year, tax
police seized Maradona's payout for participating in a televised show "Dancing
with the Stars". In 2001, he was met by 20 police officers as he got off a plane
in Rome.
Maradona was an enormous celebrity when he lived in Naples, where adoring
fans opened a museum to honour him.
The Argentine is considered one of the greatest players of all time. But
since his retirement in 1997 he has been troubled by cocaine addiction, alcohol
abuse and obesity and spent several years in and out of rehabilitation,
including a spell in Cuba where President Fidel Castro befriended him.
He led protests against U.S. President George W. Bush when he attended a
summit in Argentina last year. He has also hosted his own talk show on Argentine
television.
In his glory days, Maradona led Argentina to victory in
the 1986 World Cup and captained the team in the 1990 tournament, when it lost
in the final.
