A 25-year-old female footballer has joined the battle to be recognised as one of Diego Maradona‘s growing brood of children.
Argentinian Eugenia Laprovittola is said to have launched a paternity suit to try to prove the former Naples and Barcelona star is her father.
Reports in Argentina say she was adopted as a child and was only told who her ‘real dad’ was during a reunion with her birth mum a couple of months ago.
Famous Argentinian journalist Luis Ventura, who has spoken to Eugenia, insists Maradona was made aware of her intention before he died from heart failure aged 60 on November 25.
Argentinian Eugenia Laprovittola, pictured above, is said to have launched a paternity suit to try to prove the former Naples and Barcelona star is her father
Reports in Argentina say she was adopted as a child and was only told who her ‘real dad’ was during a reunion with her birth mum a couple of months ago
Diego Maradona, pictured with his doctor, Leopoldo Luque (left), just days before he died in November
The brunette plays football with the same number 10 shirt Diego used during his career.
She describes herself on social media as a ‘footballer and occasional artist’ and lays bare her admiration for Maradona with photos of him kissing and lifting up the World Cup.
Like Santiago Lara, the 19-year-old who has spent years fighting to prove he is the soccer legend’s son, Eugenia is from the city of La Plata about an hour’s drive south of Buenos Aires where Maradona managed top-flight side Gimnasia y Esgrima.
The brunette plays football with the same number 10 shirt Diego used during his career
He instructed his lawyer to demand the exhumation of Maradona’s body in a sensational move less than 24 hours after he was buried.
Mum-of-two Magali Gil, 24, is the third person currently fighting to be recognised as Diego’s child.
She emerged as the latest possible member of the Maradona clan in October last year.
The brunette, who was also adopted as a child, insisted in a recent Instagram post: ‘My search was always the same, to resolve my identity and know if Diego Maradona is my biological father.
‘This is a universal right which everyone in the world has. Therefore I ask and demand that this issue is treated with the respect it deserves.’
Earlier this month a former lover of Maradona’s broke years of silence to claim the soccer legend’s DNA was falsified during her legal battle a decade ago to prove he was the father of her teenage son.
Laura Cibilla spoke for the first time ever to insist her 17-year-old boy is the retired footballer’s whatever the courts say, but she insisted she had no plans to revive her court fight over her paternity claim.
Laura, known in Argentina as the only woman who lost a paternity suit against Maradona, was working at a Buenos Aires nightclub called La Diosa when he walked in with his entourage and told her boss to give her the night off so she could join him for drinks.
In a long interview with Argentinian reporter Nancy Dure, Laura said she was now eking out a living as a single parent in the Argentinian capital and insisted she had only given birth to her teen son and not two children as a former friend of Diego’s had last month claimed.
Diego, whose death is being probed by prosecutors, had recognised two sons and three daughters by four different women including his ex-wife Claudia Villafane and former long-term partner Veronica Ojeda as his own.
Maradona is also believed to have fathered at least three children in Cuba during his treatment there for his drug addiction.
They have been named as Joana, Lu and Javielito, with claims of a fourth child called Harold.
There is no suggestion they have launched paternity lawsuits and they have never been fully identified.
Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla said months before the star’s untimely death the retired footballer would assume his responsibilities as Santiago Lara’s father if the blood link was confirmed.
Mr Morla has previously been quoted as saying ‘Everyone knows that in Argentina there’s Santiago and another person that people are talking about.’
In October last year a 23-year-old brunette called Magali Gil (pictured) emerged as the latest possible member of Maradona’s brood
He admitted in October 2018 Maradona had been ‘naughty’ in Cuba and confessed: ‘There’s going to be a lot of Maradonas, a lot, even if some people don’t like it’, has confirmed the trio met him during the funeral of Fidel Castro.
Over recent years Maradona had recognised his 34-year-old son Diego Junior, born from an extra-marital affair with Italian model Cristina Sinagra, and 24-year-old Jana who met her dad for the first time nearly six years ago following a court fight by her mum Valeria Sabalain.
Maradona also had two daughters by his ex-wife, 33-year-old Dalma and 31-year-old Giannina, and a seven-year-old son called Diego Fernando by former girlfriend Veronica Ojeda.
Dalma, Giannina and Jana were pallbearers at Diego’s funeral at private cemetery Jardin Bella Vista on the north-west outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Santiago Lara (pictured), who comes from the same Argentinian city of La Plata where Maradona managed Gimnasia y Esgrima, recently made a renewed TV appeal for the football legend to recognise him as his son
Italy-based Diego Junior was prevented from attending after being hospitalised with coronavirus.
Gianinna Maradona joked last year after the names of three children said to be his in Cuba were made public: ‘Just three more needed for the team of 11. You can do it!!!’
The battle for Maradona’s millions is expected to be one of the messiest inheritance fights in recent history.
His fortune has been estimated at £37 million.
A valuable stash of memorabilia including a Harry Kane shirt and a 3.5-tonne amphibious vehicle recently came to light. Other valuables included jewellery and property and investments in countries where Maradona played and coached, including the United Arab Emirates and Belarus.