Diego Maradona's children have announced the launch of a foundation to honor the Argentine football legend’s legacy, featuring plans for a memorial site in the heart of Buenos Aires.
The “M10 Memorial” is scheduled to open in 2025 in the tourist area of Puerto Madero and will be able to welcome one million visitors a year, according to its official website.
“We want our father to be close to the love of the people, and to grant the wish of all those who want to bring him a flower,” his daughter Dalma Maradona said during a presentation broadcast on YouTube Thursday.
Access to the 1,000-square-metre site will be free for Argentines, but if they make a donation to the Maradona Foundation, they will be able to put their photo on a “heritage wall” at the memorial.
Dalma added that the foundation — chaired by her and four of Maradona’s children from other relationships — arose from a desire to “pay tribute to him (and) preserve his legacy”.
Earlier this month, a court authorized the transfer of Maradona’s remains from a cemetery to a mausoleum for this future memorial site so that locals and tourists could visit “Argentina’s great idol”.
Maradona passed away in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, following decades of struggles with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
