Diego Maradona flying museum unveiled in World Cup tribute - in pictures

An aeroplane dedicated to Argentine great Diego Maradona has been unveiled ahead of a journey that will end at the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

The Tango D10S – a 12-seater aircraft financed by an Argentine FinTech company - is designed as a flying museum in tribute to the former World Cup winner, who died of a heart attack in November 2020.

It features a picture of Maradona kissing the World Cup trophy on the fuselage, while his face is also on the tail.

The wings feature both of his goals from Argentina's 2-1 victory against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final: the “Hand of God” goal on the left wing and the winner, a goal regarded as one of the greatest of all time, on the right.

“I am mad about Maradona, one of those people who still watch videos of Diego before I go to sleep at night,” Gaston Kolker, CEO of FinTech company Give and Get, said.

“This is the first World Cup without Maradona and maybe the last with (Lionel) Messi. I said, I want to make Diego’s plane, I want to make Diego’s plane. And so we launched Tango D10S.

“When Maradona’s teammates saw it, the World Cup winners from 1986, they were amazed, they were hypnotised by the aircraft,” Kolker said at an unveiling with other members from that World Cup winning side on Wednesday in Buenos Aires.

The plan is planned to fly the plane around Argentina and eventually to Qatar for the World Cup in November.

In this file picture taken on June 29, 1986 Argentina's captain Diego Maradona kisses the World Cup after a 3-2 victory over West Germany at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City. Maradona is self-isolating after one of his bodyguards displayed symptoms of Covid-19. AFP

Fans will be able to board the aircraft and leave a message for Maradona in