Diego Armando Maradona was born on 30 October 1960, in Lanus, Buenos Aires, Argentina, of Argentinian, Spanish, Italian, and Croatian ancestry. Diego is a retired professional soccer player, best known to have served with the national team of Argentina as both a player and a coach. A lot of fans, writers, and players believe that he is the greatest soccer player of all time. All of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Diego Maradona? As of mid-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $100,000, mostly earned through a career in professional soccer. Despite his high earnings, he’s had a string of financial difficulties which has lowered his net worth. As he continues on with his endeavors, there is a chance that his net worth will start rising once again.
Diego Maradona Net Worth $100,000
At the age of eight, Maradona was playing soccer with a local club when he was noticed by a talent scout. He became part of the team Los Cebollitas which was a junior team of the professional club Argentinos Juniors. In 1976, he made his professional debut, and scored his first goal the following month. He would go on and play for five years with the Juniors, scoring 115 goals in 167 appearances. Eventually, he transferred to Boca Juniors and signed a $4 million contract with the team he always wanted to play for. His debut game with Boca saw him score two goals and he would go on and produce spectacular performances; the team had a successful season and won the league title.
After the 1982 World Cup, Maradona became part of Barcelona for a then world record fee of $7.6 million; in 1983, the club would win the Copa del Ray and the Spanish Super Cup, and Maradona became the first Barcelona player to be cheered and applauded by Real Madrid fans. Despite his success, he was plagued with injuries and illnesses which made him struggle. He suffered a broken ankle in 1983 which was eventually healed thanks to therapy. At the end of the 1983 to 1984 season, Maradona instigated a fight against Bilbao which caused a large scale brawl between both teams, leaving 60 people injured and ensuring Diego’s transfer out of the team.
He signed for Italian club Napoli, and would make his way to become the captain of the team. He gained a lot of fans as he led the team to its most successful soccer era; they won the Serie A Italian Championship and he would lead the club to another title win in 1989, subsequently having great runs during the Coppa Italia, UEFA Cup, and Italian Supercup. He became the all-time leading goal scorer for Napoli, however, despite this success, he had problems with cocaine addiction which led him to miss practice games, and he was given a 15-month ban, and left Napoli in 1992.
During his run with Napoli, and even afterwards, he would play with the Argentina National Team and notably became the star of the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. He would win the Golden Ball at both the FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA World Cup. For the full Argentinian team, Maradona played 91 times, scoring 34 goals – he played in four World Cups, captaining the team to victory in Mexico in 1986, and to the final in Italy in 1990 where they losy to West Germany. He was thrown out of the 1994 World Cup in the US after failing a drug test.
After retiring from playing, Maradona would receive numerous honors including the FIFA Player of the Century. A lot of his honors and awards were the results of voting from fans. In 2005, he returned to Boca Juniors as sports vice president and helped the team improve. He also became a part of a variety talk show entitled “La Noche del 10”, which he was known for interviewing another soccer legend, Pele. In 2011, he became the manager of the Dubai club Al Wasl FC, but was released a year later. He would also manage the international team until 2014, when it was decided that his contract would not be renewed.
For his personal life, it is known that Diego married Claudia Villafane in 1984 and they have two daughters. They divorced in 2004 but remain friends.
