Football icon Diego Maradona has hit out at claims that he is being taken advantage of by his own entourage, and has released a bizarre video to social media showing him ‘handcuffed’ by a cake ribbon.
The clip comes amid reports that his daughters Gianinna Maradona, 31, and Dalma, 33, are growing increasingly concerned with the star’s alcohol consumption to the point that they are considering asking a court to intervene.
“I don’t have to expose my dad. If I do it, it will be in front of a judge, so it can be done judicially,” Gianinna said to Argentinian television.
“I don’t tell him not to drink alcohol anymore. But he doesn’t enjoy it. I want my dad to keep living. I’m at the limit where I don’t have to expose my dad. If I do it, it will be in front of a judge, so it can be done judicially.“
This has led to speculation that Fernando Burlando, who has previously represented Maradona’s ex-wife Claudia Villafane, could potentially represent Maradona’s daughters in any legal action.
Furthermore, Burlando has claimed in Argentinian media that Maradona’s life is being controlled by a group of hangers-on who have attached themselves to the World Cup winner.
“I’m of the idea that for someone to be deprived of their liberty they don’t necessarily have to be in a cellar or locked up with a padlock, there are other ways to deprive liberty,” Burlando said.
“When you don’t have the capacity and possibility to make decisions, that is an eloquent form of deprivation of liberty.
“The episodes that have repeatedly occurred in the lives of the relatives of Diego Maradona, in the notes that he has made, for example, that had to be rectified by him, without there being any proof that he has expressed these declarations, speak of the fact that they are cornering him and managing his life.”
However, in a video currently doing the rounds on social media Maradona definitively rejects these notions.
“I didn’t know I was imprisoned,” he said, breaking free from a cake ribbon ‘tied’ around his wrists.
“Look how imprisoned I am. This is from the cake that was made here, in this house. Imprisoned, my a**e.”
