Diego Maradona’s final words before death emerge

The last four words spoken by football legend Diego Maradona have emerged as his four-word tombstone epitaph also came to light.

Diego Armando Maradona shaking hands with his doctor Leopoldo Luque. Photo: Diego Maradona press office and AFP.

Diego Maradona’s last words before he died were: “I don’t feel well.”

The football legend died on Thursday (AEDT) from a heart attack, two weeks after he underwent surgery on a brain bleed.

It can now be revealed Maradona, 60, ate breakfast before telling nephew Johnny Esposito he didn’t feel well and was going to lie down again, The Sun reports.

A nurse who was looking after Maradona, following his release from hospital after his brain scan operation, phoned for an ambulance and several responded.

RELATED: Maradona’s sad final years

But it was already too late and the retired footballer was dead by the time help arrived.

The last hours of the former Napoli and Barcelona star’s short life were played out in Argentine media as an autopsy expected to show he had died from a massive heart attack.

One described how he had awoken in the morning looking pale and complaining of feeling cold.

Diego Maradona will be honoured with three days of national mourning.

He went back to bed after a quick breakfast where he is said to have pronounced his last words: ‘Me siento mal’ - English for ‘I don’t feel well’.

Emergency responders made an unsuccessful attempt to revive him after they arrived at the rented house in the gated community he had moved to after leaving hospital on November 11.

State prosecutors, who have launched a routine inquiry into Maradona’s death, said it had occurred around midday local time.

Prosecution chief John Broyad, speaking outside San Andres as the retired footballer’s body was taken to a nearby morgue for an autopsy, said: “Diego Armando Maradona died around 12pm local time.

“The forensic police began their work at 4pm. No signs of any criminality or violence have been detected.

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona shaking hands with his doctor Leopoldo Luque earlier this month. Photo: Diego Maradona press office and AFP.

“The autopsy is being carried out to determine beyond any doubt the cause of death but we can say at this stage that everything is pointing to natural causes.”

Maradona’s wake will take place at the Argentinian equivalent of the White House.

It had been rumoured the Casa Rosada, the seat of the country’s national government which houses the president’s office and translates as the Pink House, would be used.

President Alberto Fernandez has already announced three days of national mourning.

MESSAGE MARADONA WANTED ON HIS TOMBSTONE

Maradona spelled out while he was still alive the message he wanted engraved on his tombstone.

The legend made the astonishing admission in a bizarre TV interview 15 years ago in which he quizzed himself.

The famous former footballer being interviewed for the show Diego presented at the time called La Noche del 10 said, “Getting old with his grandchildren would mean a peaceful death” for him.

Diego Maradona living it up in the 2018 World Cup. Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Maradona said: “Thanks for having played football because it’s the sport that gave me most happiness and freedom and it’s like having touched the sky with my hand.

“Thanks to the ball. Yes, I would put on the tombstone...‘Thanks to the ball.’”

Diego Maradona celebrating Argentina scoring the first goal against Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup, with a white powder substance seen on the glass.

MARADONA’S SAD FINAL YEARS

A photo of Maradona at the 2018 World Cup in Russia has come to define the sad final years of the football legend’s life.

The images of the Argentinian national hero in a private box with an apparent smothering of a white powder substance smeared across the glass is quickly emerging as the most heartbreaking image of his health spiral.

The immortal shots of a fired up Maradona cheering wildly as his own country defeated Nigeria with a late winner at the FIFA showpiece came just minutes before his scary collapsein the stands.

He insisted at the time his collapse was the result of him drinking too much wine.

The unproven rumours that the white powder suggested a return to drug-use came just 12 months after the World Cup icon proudly claimed he hadn’t used hard drugs in 14 years.

He continued to abuse alcohol during this period.

Before his collapse in Russia, Maradona was caught on TV lunging forwards from his executive box seat and giving opposing fans below “the finger” with both hands.

But moments after his nation’s thrilling 2-1 win over Nigeria, he was seen hunched over and had to be held up by a pal as he was led to the executive suite area.

Anxious medical staff at St Petersburg’s 64,000-seat Zenit Arena were seen checking his pulse and attempting to calm him soon after.

He was taken to hospital in the city for precautionary checks.

A preliminary diagnosis later confirmed he had high blood pressure and a heart murmur.

It was a perfect symbol of the wild rollercoaster that was Maradona’s life.

It was just the tip of the iceberg of his turbulent personal life and gradual health decline in his latter years.

He died two weeks after undergoing surgery for a brain bleed.

But he had long suffered with his health and made several trips to hospital since turning 60 on October 30.

ONE OF THE ALL-TIME GREATEST

The highs in his life were crowned by his performances when he captained Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986.

In the final, Maradona set up the 86th-minute winner against West Germany. He scored twice in the semi-final against Belgium, beating four defenders for the second goal.

But the match that defined his tournament, and possibly his career, was that win over England, in which he scored two goals that will be remembered forever -- for very different reasons.

In the 51st minute, as England goalkeeper Peter Shilton reached to catch the ball, Maradona jumped alongside him and with a deftness that fooled the eye, flicked the ball with his hand through the England goalkeeper’s arms and into the net. The referee allowed the goal to stand.

After the game, Maradona said he scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.

The goal he scored four minutes later, when he picked up the ball in his own half and glided past six England players, was named “Goal of the Century” by FIFA.

This story originally appeared in thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission