Maradona's coffin arrives in Argentina president's mansion

Diego Maradona's body arrived at the presidential palace in Argentina today as a grieving country prepares to pay its last respects to the flawed football genius who died on Wednesday at the age of 60, reports Daily Mail.  

As a crowd of weeping fans gathered outside, Maradona's coffin was lifted out of an ambulance and brought into the palace where it will lie in state in a three-day spectacle of national mourning. 

Others gathered outside the Buenos Aires stadium where Maradona began his career and which has since been renamed in his honour, setting up a makeshift shrine to celebrate Argentina's legendary number 10. 

His death has also been keenly felt in Europe, especially in Naples where he steered an unfashionable side to two Italian league titles and where fans let off flares in tribute outside the stadium last night. 

In Britain, where he is best remembered for his 'Hand of God' goal against England in 1986 - an act of brazen cheating followed only minutes later by one of the greatest goals in football history - a minute's silence took place ahead of Liverpool's Champions League match on Wednesday night.  

Regarded by some as the greatest player of all time, Maradona combined awesome footballing ability with a flair for showmanship and a turbulent personal life marked by drug and alcohol problems. 

An autopsy report leaked to Argentine media said he died in his sleep after suffering heart failure, only two weeks after leaving hospital following surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain.   

Medics also detected dilated cardiomyopathy, a medical condition in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body.

His nephew Johnny Esposito was the last person to see him alive, according to the report, before doctors with an appointment to see him went to his estate on Wednesday and found him unresponsive.