Diego Maradona's daughter, Gianinna, said she was convinced, in an interview with some media outlets including AFP, that "there was a plan" by those around her father, the medical team, if not to kill him, at least to keep him under their control, but a plan that "escaped" them.

"There was a plan, for sure, and someone directing it, but things got out of hand," said Gianinna, 36, this week, on the sidelines of the trial in San Isidro of seven health professionals for alleged fatal negligence towards the Argentine football star, who died on November 25, 2020.

She pointed the finger at certain close associates, such as Maradona's former lawyer and agent, Matias Morla, and his former assistant Maximiliano Pomargo, who are not among the accused. But they too have now been ordered to stand trial, on a date yet to be set, for fraudulent management of the Maradona trademarks.

"I can't properly conceptualize this plan, the fact that they wanted to kill him. Did Morla want to have my father's life in his hands? Surely," she says.

- "The power of having Maradona" -

In support of this thesis, she recalls that some of the defendants in the trial had convinced the family, in November 2020, that the only option for Maradona, after his neurosurgery, was convalescence at home and not internment in psychiatry.

The former Napoli player could also have treated his addictions, but this option would have required, given Maradona's likely refusal, the guardianship of a judge.

"It didn't suit them that my father was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, because a lot of things would have collapsed for Morla," to whom Maradona had given power of attorney for the commercial use of his name, Gianinna recalls. "He was the one who had the signature, who could sign as if it were Dad."

"He had the power to have Maradona (under his control) and did what he wanted with that power," she sneered, denouncing that the inner circle at that time "was always thinking about the financial aspect, not about Dad's health."

In her lengthy testimony two weeks ago at the trial, Gianinna, repeatedly overcome by tears, denounced a "total, horrible manipulation" of the family by the medical team around her father.

The setting of his convalescence in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires, in a large house but without suitable medical equipment, almost unsanitary, and described by the prosecution as "devoid of everything", is a key element of the trial.

Gianinna believes that the seven accused "are all responsible, some to a higher degree than others," and points the finger at Leopoldo Luque, then Maradona's personal physician, as the one "who ran everything" in the team: "he was the main voice."

However, she asserts, everyone has a responsibility for what they did, or failed to do. "The nurse who was supposed to check him before leaving didn't check him, and the nurse who arrived didn't check him either."

- "They were afraid" -

Maradona died at the age of 60 from a cardiorespiratory crisis and pulmonary edema, according to some expert reports, after a few hours of agony, alone on his bed in the residence he had rented for his convalescence.

"They all had a guideline and they all followed it, respected something," Gianinna insisted, following her idea of a "plan".

"The one who was pulling the strings a little bit (...), was Maxi Pomargo," Maradona's former right-hand man, brother-in-law of lawyer Morla.

Moreover, Gianinna asserts, when her father's condition deteriorated, the members of the care team "were afraid, because in the audios (messages included in the trial, editor's note), we hear things like 'I'm covering myself legally'. They never imagined that the prosecutor's office would act quickly, seize their phones, search their homes."

The seven defendants deny any responsibility in Maradona's death, claiming it was due to natural causes. They defend themselves by citing their respective areas of expertise, each having a specific role. They face between 8 and 25 years in prison.