Maradona girlfriend says wedding bells planned, no date set

The girlfriend of Diego Maradona says she and her former football superstar boyfriend will soon tie the knot, although no firm wedding date has been set.

“It will be this year, if we can manage it,” Rocio Oliva told reporters at the airport after she arrived from Dubai, where she lives with the football icon.

Oliva had come to Argentina to attend the birthday party of her brother, Luciano.

Asked about tabloid reports of a December 13 wedding, she said, “No, not the 13th!”

“Everything’s okay, guys. We always invent arguments,” she responded after a reporter asked about rumors the relationship was not at its best.

Celebrity gossip programs have suggested Maradona, 54, and Oliva, 25, would be married in the Vatican with the blessing of Pope Francis, a noted football fan who was born in Buenos Aires.

Maradona is currently engaged in a legal dispute with his former wife, Claudia Villafane, with whom he has two daughters, over a shortage of money in a joint account. He divorced Villafane in 2003.

He has two sons and another daughter with three other women.