The supreme court of Italy exonerated, posthumously, the unsurpassed football legend Diego Maradona from tax evasion charges, ending a 30-year legal battle between the late Napoli striker and the country’s tax authorities.

“El Pibe de Oro” accused of using proxy companies in Liechtenstein to avoid tax returns on his earnings from Napoli between 1985 and 1990, in relation to his personal image rights. “It’s over and I can clearly state without fear that Maradona has never been a tax evader,” his lawyer, Angelo Pisani, told Reuters.

The Rome Court in mid-December overturned a 2018 verdict, according to a court document published on Wednesday (3/1).

Maradona “passed away” on November 25, 2020 from a heart attack. Investigations into the Argentine legend’s tax payments began in the early 1990s and culminated in categories amounting to 37 million euros and confiscation of some of the player’s belongings during his visits to Italy.

Pisani added that the final verdict “does injustice to the fans, to the values ​​of sport, but above all to the memory of Maradona, but it puts an end to a prosecution that has endured for 30 years. The heirs now have a legal right to claim compensation. EI hope they do, in memory of their father”