The shirt with which Diego Armando Maradona "stole his wallet" from the English has just been sold in pounds sterling.
After two weeks of virtual auction, the house Sotheby's has announced this Wednesday that the number '10' that the idol used the day that Argentina beat England in the World Cup in Mexico 86 already has a new owner.
The bidder, which according to some Argentine media is a group from the United Arab Emirates, has paid 7,142,500 pounds (nearly 9.3 million dollars) to get hold of a piece of football history – which as of today is the most expensive in sports
memorabilia
– and a huge piece of the sentimental memory of Argentines.
On June 22, 1986, Diego Armando Maradona forged his legend against the English team: he scored a goal with his hand and then left six defenders on the way to score the best in history.
The country then celebrated three years since the return of democracy and four since the defeat against the United Kingdom in the war for the Malvinas Islands, which marked the beginning of the end of the military dictatorship.
The team led by Maradona won the World Cup that year against Germany, but the match against the English for the quarterfinals was marked in the national memory by its symbolic load.
“I don't confuse football with a war, but that match had to be won for the people.
For the mothers of the boys who died in the Malvinas, ”recalled the Argentine star decades later on an anniversary of the match.
About the goal he scored with his hand, which he never regretted, he said: “I stole their wallet.
What are you going to do, brother?
Crocodile that sleeps...”.
The announcement of the auction returned to Argentine television the soap opera for the inheritance of Maradona, who died in 2020. The garment belonged to former English soccer player Steve Hodge, who that afternoon was the first defender to fall in front of the '10' in the goal race of victory, but who did not hesitate to approach him to ask for his shirt at the end of the match.
Hodge owned one of the two that Maradona wore during the game.
The day before, the Argentine team had had an emergency: the team had to play with an alternate color than usual and the technical management assumed that the one they had on hand was not ideal to withstand the Mexican summer.
The props toured the Mexican capital in search of a solution and what they found was of such poor quality that the team had to change for the second half.
Maradona is followed by Steve Hodge during the match between Argentina and England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.Peter Robinson - EMPICS (PA Images via Getty Images)
Sotheby's never doubted that the garment that was valued at five million dollars at the beginning of the auction was the original.
The Maradona family, however, challenged him from day one.
Dalma Maradona, the eldest daughter of number '10', defended that her mother was the true owner of the second-half jersey and called Steve Hodge a “liar”.
“He doesn't have the two-goal shirt, but he can't say it because he has much more value in the other one.
I don't confirm it, my dad said it: 'How am I going to give him the most important shirt of my life? ”, She said in an interview.
The suspicion fell, at least in television minutes.
The photos the auction house used to compare the frayed threads of the poor quality fabric,
The shirt of the goals of "the hand of God" and the "cosmic kite", with which Maradona wrote his story as a rogue and virtuous, has become the most expensive object in the history of sport.
After its sale on Wednesday, he surpassed one used by baseball's beast, George Herman
Babe
Ruth, for which he paid $5.2 million.
He also surpassed the most expensive item of sports
memorabilia
to date: the original Olympics manifesto, for which a Russian millionaire paid $8.8 million in 2019.
Five recognized children, another six in the process of affiliation, ex-wives, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends and lawyers dispute Maradona's inheritance, which includes real estate, companies, jewelry, cars and brands in several countries.
The most mythical garment worn by the '10' will not be part of that incalculable heritage.
While Maradona's heirs wonder about the price of the other shirt, much of Argentina mourns the loss of that piece of history.
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