Maradona 'died in agony' as horrifying details of football legend's death emerge (2025)

Football legend Maradona likely ‘died in agony’ as his heart swelled to double its regular size, a court heard.

Seven medical professionals are on trial for culpable homicide in Argentina after the death of one of the sport’s finest ever players in November 2020 at the age of 60 following a cardiac arrest.

Maradona was recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot at home at the time of his death having battled cocaine and alcohol addiction for years.

The seven-person medical team, including a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist and medical staffers, are on trial accused of failing to provide Maradona with adequate care. Prosecutors have described his final days as a ‘horror theatre’.

Maradona was found to have died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema with four-and-half liters accumulating in his lungs for ‘at least 10 days’ before his death, forensic expert Carlos Mauricio Casinellisaid.

Casinelli, director of forensic medicine at the Scientific Police Superintendency, was one of the experts who performed a post-mortem examination on the former player.

Maradona’s heart ‘weighed almost twice as much as a normal one,’ Casinelli said, explaining it would have caused ‘agony’ for at least 12 hours prior to his death.

Casinelli claimed his heart weighed 503 grams when he died – heavier than a football.

‘It was a dark, partitioned room, with a bed in the middle of the room and a portable toilet . It didn’t seem like a suitable place for what we later learned was home hospitalisation ,’ he said.

‘What’s striking is thatall the organs had fluid retention. All the organs were heavier than normal in a corpse.

‘The agonising period can be long or short, depending on the pathology. Because of the clot, theagony lasted several hours.’

During court proceedings, the judge warned gruesome images and video footage of Maradona’s autopsy would be shown. Argentine newspaper Clarin report Jana, Diego’s eldest daughter, left the courtroom as some of the morbid details were revealed.

Casinelli also explained such was the severity of Maradona’s condition, the pressure on his lungs would have been audible to those close to him.

‘From my experience with the generalised edema, the difficulty he must have had breathing and exchanging gases, and the sounds in his lungs that are audible just by bringing his face close,’ he said.

‘In my opinion as a doctor, it wasn’t a sudden event.’

The trial is expected to continue until July.

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