Los Angeles Times

The life of soccer great Diego Maradona was fit for the tabloids. So is his death.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Diego Armando Maradona, the most transcendent soccer player of his generation, perhaps of all time, lived a chaotic, tabloid-ready life.

He fought drug and alcohol addiction, depression, obesity and paternity claims while struggling to find his place once his playing magic escaped him.

His death has been just as messy.

News that Maradona had succumbed to apparent heart failure last week at age 60 — three weeks after surgery to relieve swelling in his brain — sparked an outpouring of grief around the world. Here in his native Argentina, tens of thousands of distraught mourners bid farewell at the presidential palace, where his coffin lay in state for 16 hours.

No sooner was Maradona buried — a day after his Nov. 25 death — than prosecutors,

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