Of the 2,548 goals that have made World Cup history, there are at least two that are impossible to forget. And those two were made with the same shirt. This is the blue of the Argentina National Team and more precisely what Diego Armando Maradona wore to face the English for the best goal in history, detailed in this Clarín is special. This Wednesday, almost 36 years after that magical afternoon, the jacket it was sold to the highest bidder for £ 7.1 million.
The figure is a record for a football shirt, according to the British auction site. Sotheby’s, who conducted the sale online, and the name of the winner was not disclosed, but knew that few offers were made from the base price of 4 million. The buyer would have come from the Middle Eastas revealed by an Argentine who offered.
When the auction started, it was expected to reach 6 million pounds sterling and although thousands of curious people entered the site to see what happened to Diez’s superhero costume, there were a few with the money and determination to go. bid.
Anyway, the relic has been transformed into the most expensive sports memorabilia in historysurpassed and nearly doubled what the United States paid for a jersey of legendary American baseball player Babe Ruth that sold for approximately $ 5 million in 2019. Maradona did it. As second against English, the best goal in World Cup history.
The only offer was 4 million pounds sterling. If there is more, add 200 thousand.
This is not a number to underestimate. If the exchange rate for this Wednesday, May 4, is taken into account, the day the hammer was lowered at auction, the shirt was sold at the price $ 8,928,374.99 -almost the “10 green sticks” value of Diego’s pass in 1981- or 1,035,858,204.50 pesos.
In addition, the buyer must pay a twenty percent commission, which will add nearly one million and eight hundred thousand dollars to the operation, which is more than ten million US dollars.
Certification began on April 20, then steve hodge, one of the English Maradona defeated that afternoon, decided to part with the “Hand of God” and the “Cosmic Kite” shirt. But it didn’t start without controversy, like almost everything surrounding what a star lives.
Steve Hodge in Maradona’s jersey.
Recognizing the freshness of the auction of Le Coq Sportif’s legendary blue nylon 10, Dalma Maradona announced that it wasn’t the shirt where her father scored a goal with his hand and it was eventually the stack that started it. in midfield and finished with a goal that nothing else happened between Diego and the ball.
The star’s eldest daughter made sure the jacket was the one for the first time, no purpose.
The T-shirt, on display at Sothebys. Photo: REUTERS
“Knowing my dad for just a minute, you know that he didn’t give that shirt to anyone. The one in the first half, OK, change it because you also don’t know what will happen in the second. That shirt (the one from the second half) this guy is nothing, poor thing“, he insisted.” My father and I have already discussed this topic. I know that really. He obviously doesn’t have it, ”he said.
However, world champion Oscar Garré opposed that version and said Clarion why Hodge had the holy grail of Maradona jerseys. little surgeon he exchanged it with Gary Lineker and when the captain entered the locker room and saw the Englishman’s 10, he exchanged it for the Hodge 18 he had given him a few seconds earlier.
Steve Hodge marked Diego Maradona in the 1986 Mexico quarterfinals. Photo: AFP
Sotheby’s guarantees that the jacket on sale is the one the Villa Fiorito star used in the second half.. To do this, it is supported by a study conducted by Resolution Photomatchinga professional photo comparison company that works with verification processes at many auction houses from different parts of the world and also with private collectors.
According to the report of Resolution Photomatchingsigned by its founder and owner John Robinson, the comparison made from available photos of the second half of the match between Argentina and England produced a definite result: the jacket being auctioned was what Maradona used in those 45 minutes and, therefore, what he was wearing when he scored two goals.
The shirt worn by Diego Maradona in the match against England in 1986 at Sotheby’s auctions.
“A specific photographic match was made from torn yarn and seam imperfections in the custom-stitched patch on the front of the jersey,” said the report, which was posted on the auction page along with the photos. of the shirt owned by Hodge and which for two decades remained on display in the National Football Museum of England, located in Manchester.
The shirt worn by Diego Maradona in the match against England in 1986 at Sotheby’s auctions.
The report states that matches were also found in “the alignment of the drawings on the custom stitch patch and logo on the front of the jersey, the custom screen-printed numbers on the back of the jersey and between the front and jersey back and jersey sleeves “, although he stressed that they are not” clear and identical enough to be considered credible matching features “, but instead” support matching features ” .
More there and that “the drawings on the shirt in some photos of Maradona appear upside down and twisted due to the lack of clarity of the photos, ” Resolution Photomatching clarified that “the combined analysis of multiple images allowed a specific photographic match to be determined.”
Will the shirt still arrive in Argentina?
Argentine Marcelo Ordas, owner of the firm Legends, which brings together the largest private collection of used shirts in the world, traveled to London to participate in the auction and although he came to bid , he was left wanting to stay along with the historic jacket of the Ten.
“We thought we could bring back this relic so we could share it with all Argentines, but an offer from the Middle East came at the last minute and removed our illusion“, Ordas said in the dialogue The Country+ when the result is known.
There, Ordas was visibly moved and hurt when he could not bring the shirt to Argentina. “A lot of people supported it. The maximum offer was 5.5 million pounds. For the price that left, it was impossible for us,” he remarked with tears in his eyes.
He also said that “many people worked together, many journalists, many businessmen from anonymous, the AFA president was personal at all times” and said he received a call from Catalan soccer player Gerard Piqué, who told him that “he is going to accompany this crusade because I know what it means to our country.
Finally, he announced that they would ask the winners of the auction, which he said was associated with Manchester City owners, to lend the shirt to Argentina and to show it to the country.
“We’ll explain to them that for them it’s something, a relic, for us this is the sanmartinian saber of the 20th century for Argentines. This man who wore the shirt was the Argentine who, in time and space, made us the worst man in the world. No one in the 212 years of our beautiful homeland has made us happier in time and space than Diego Armando Maradona. “
Source: Clarin
