An iconic football shirt worn by Argentinian legend Diego Maradona has broken two Guinness World Records titles after being sold for £7,142,500 ($8,958,124) at auction.
The light blue Argentina shirt was worn by Maradona during the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match against England, a game that became famous for the "Hand of God" moment.
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 leapt up for a header but instead used his hand to guide the ball over England goalkeeper Peter Shilton – all the match officials were unaware of Maradona’s use of the hand and the goal was awarded.
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".
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.
Diego Maradona's jersey from the1986 World Cup quarter-final against England was sold for $8.93 million. Maradona scored the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal in the match https://t.co/Gpjj0Gt1bdpic.twitter.com/MWkwpcE1aM
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2022
The shirt was put up for auction by Steve Hodge, a former player for 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).
Diego Maradona died in November 2020 at the age of 60.
"The Golden Boy" held several Guinness World Records titles, including the most football (soccer) FIFA World Cup appearances as captain with 16 as well as scoring the most goals at a football (soccer) FIFA World Cup as captain with 6.
He made 91 appearances for the Argentinian national team and then became head coach during their 2010 World Cup campaign.
In his club career, he spent over 10 years in Europe with spells at Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla.
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