Wayne Lumbasi
The blue shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored two momentous goals to knock England out of the 1986 World Cup, including the so-called “Hand of God” goal, has sold for a record-breaking sum at auction.
The shirt, which has spent the last 20 years on loan at the National Football Museum in Manchester, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s on Wednesday afternoon for $9.3 million marking a new auction record for any item of sports memorabilia.
The Argentinian player, hailed as one of the greatest of all time, described his opening handball goal in the quarter-final as “a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God”.
He dribbled the ball past a host of England players to score against goalkeeper Peter Shilton. That strike was later voted the “goal of the century”.
England midfielder Steve Hodge, who had unintentionally flicked the ball to Maradona in the Hand of God play, swapped shirts with his rival after the game and has owned it ever since.