The news was given directly by Pibe de Oro's lawyer, Angelo Pisani, interviewed by Radio Gol: “Yesterday I heard from Maradona, next week he will be in Naples”. And that's not all: "He would like to greet the Azzurri fans at San Paolo, and on May 20 he will be at the Olimpico for the Italian Cup final: he promised it".
Naples is already trembling at the mere idea of embracing its unforgettable number 10 seven years after that June 9, 2005, when the Argentine champion entered the stadium for the last time that made him great on the occasion of the farewell to football of his former partner and great friend Ciro Ferrara.
Enthusiasm, emotion, passion and even love are the sensations that already pervade the millions of anxious Neapolitan fans. But, pending official confirmation, there are also sore points. “Diego – added the lawyer Pisani – wants to make the Neapolitans understand that he is not a tax evader: on April 5 he will appear before the judges".
Yes, because, as it is now well-known, Maradona has some trouble with the taxman Italian. "But I won't send my lawyer to Befera (director of the Revenue Agency, ed), I'll go there myself", he said a few days ago from Dubai, where he trains, in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. The question dates back to the time when the Pibe de Oro played for Napoli, i.e. over 20 years ago: the three foreign champions of that glorious team, Maradona, Careca and Alemao, created shell companies abroad to exploit their image. Thus the taxman began to mark them closely, and while the two Brazilians agreed, the rebel genius from Argentina scored one of the many dribbles of his incomparable career.
Result: Maradona still owes the Italian state 40 million euros. Only a minimal part was recovered by the agents of the Guardia di Finanza, through an operation that caused much discussion: in some of Diego's few appearances on Italian territory (due to his presence at the farewell match in Ferrara, in fact, and at the time of his appearances on the TV program Dancing with the Stars) since he fled to Argentina on 17 March 1991 following the cocaine scandal, the Fiamme Gialle have taken valuable earrings and watches from the Villa Fiorito sample, to then sell them auction.
"A humiliation", thundered Maradona recently, again at the Gazzetta. “I will speak directly with Befera to explain to him that my contract had a 'tax-free' clause, therefore the person in charge is President Ferlaino, not me”. This is the defense of the accused most loved by the Neapolitans. What they would absolve of any fault, assuming and not granting that he has committed one. If not that of having remained in the hearts of all of them, ready for a welcome worthy of the strongest footballer in history.
