In a Wednesday auction, the ball that Diego Maradona used to score Argentina's famed 'Hand of God' goal against England in the 1986 World Cup brought Sh293 million ($2.4 million).
The white Adidas Azteca ball, which belonged to Tunisian match referee Ali Bin Nasser, was expected to sell at auction for up to Sh439 million ($3.6 million), according to Graham Budd Auctions in the UK.
It happens six months after the jersey Maradona wore in the historic quarterfinal in Mexico City sold at auction for approximately Sh1.1 billion ($9.3 million), more than twice what Sotheby's had estimated.
The 1986 match between Argentina and England was played with the auctioned ball for the entire 90 minutes because it took place before the multi-ball system in football was implemented. The ball was inspired by the architecture and murals of the Aztec civilisation.
Political tensions following the Falklands War in 1982 contributed to the tense build-up of the match, which was ultimately defined by two contrasting goals scored by the late Maradona, who passed away at the age of 60 from heart failure in November 2020.
Maradona entered the box first and arose beside England's Peter Crouch.
Later, he said that 'a little bit of Maradona's head, and a little bit of God's hand' had gone into scoring the goal.
Content created and supplied by: Federov (via Opera News )
COMMENTS