The light blue Argentina jersey was worn by Maradona during the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match against England. The legendary football player died in November 2020 at the age of 60.
New Delhi: The iconic jersey worn by legendary footballer Diego Maradona in the game famous for the “Hand of God” moment, has broken two Guinness World Records titles after being sold for £7,142,500 ($8,958,124) at an auction, the Guinness World Records said.
The legendary football player died in November 2020 at the age of 60.
The light blue Argentina jersey was worn by Maradona during the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match against England. According to Guinness World Records, “The shirt is both the most expensive football (soccer) shirt sold at auction as well as the most expensive sports memorabilia sold at auction.”
In the 51st minute of the match, Maradona had leapt up for a header but instead used his hand to guide the ball over England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. All match officials were unaware of Maradona’s use of the hand and the goal was awarded to Argentina.
After the match, Maradona was quoted as saying that the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of god”.
According to the Guinness World Records’s website, “Just four minutes after his goal, Maradona dribbled past four defenders and goalkeeper Shilton to score a goal that was named by FIFA as the World Cup Goal of the Century. The game was viewed by over 115,000 fans in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico. Argentina subsequently defeated England and then Belgium and West Germany on the way to winning the whole tournament and Maradona picked up the Golden Ball award, the trophy for being the best player.”
The website further mentioned that the jersey was put up for auction by Steve Hodge, a former player of England, who featured in that game against Argentina in 1986.
Hodge came into possession of the shirt by trading shirts with Maradona after the game, a common occurrence between football players.
“The shirt was most recently on display at the National Football Museum in Manchester, UK and had an estimated sale price of £4million ($5.25million),” the website said.
