The football with which legendary player Diego Maradona scored the infamous ‘hand of God’ goal in the 1986 World Cup has fetched £2.5 million in an auction.
During the match, Maradona scored by punching the ball into the goal post past goalkeeper Peter Shilton when Argentina won over England 2-1 in the quarter-finals.
After the match, he went on to tell reporters that it had been scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.
Following this, Maradona scored the now-infamous ‘Goal of the Century’ in the same match after dribbling through five outfield players from the England team and scoring the goal past Shilton.
Though it fetched $3.3 million (£2.5 million) at Heritage Auctions in the United States on Saturday, the ball had been predicted to earn nearly $10 million (£7.3 million), per BBC Sport.
According to Mike Provenzale, a specialist auctioneer at Heritage, “It’s a true one-of-one item. Arguably the most significant soccer item that exists.”
Ali Bin Nasser, a Tunisian referee who officiated at the match in 1986, acquired the Adidas Azteca ball at the end of the match and kept it for more than three decades.
In 2023, he signed a letter confirming that it was the only ball that had been used during the game and has been authenticated independently.
Bin Nasser sold the ball in 2022 for $2.37 million (£1.74 million). The new owner auctioned off the ball again in 2023 but failed to sell it since the bids did not meet the minimum price.
However, the shirt that Maradona wore during the same match was auctioned for £7.1 million in 2022.
