Diego Maradona, once known for outmanoeuvring adversaries on the pitch, now hopes to sidestep an Italian tax bill worth around $33 million.

The Argentine soccer legend racked up the enormous debt to the government while playing for the Napoli team, which he led to two Italian league titles in 1987 and 1990.

After arguing unsuccessfully that his old club should foot the bill, Maradona's lawyers will go before a Rome court on Wednesday to argue a procedural technicality: tax collectors did not notify Maradona of the back taxes until it was too late.

According to one of his lawyers, Vincenzo Siniscalchi, the tax collectors complained that they couldn't find Maradona -- a huge celebrity when he lived in Naples -- to deliver the bill.

"The taxman always said he was "unknown" and they didn't know where to find him," Siniscalchi, who is also a parliamentarian, told Reuters.

Maradona's Italian tax troubles made world headlines in 2001, when he left a plane in Rome to be met by 20 officers from the financial police who told him of his tax debt.

Asked what will happen if Maradona loses his legal battle, Siniscalchi replied: "Nothing. The state will be the creditor... If he bought something in Italy, they could confiscate it. He doesn't have anything," he said.

Maradona is spending the Christmas holidays at home with his family in Argentina and will not be present at the Rome hearing.