The ball with which Diego Maradona scored the mythical goal of the 1986 World Cup with the help of "the hand of God" it was sold at auction for 2 million pounds (2.28 million euros, 2.36 million dollars) on Wednesday in London.
Auction house Graham Budd Auctions announced in October that it expected a sale between 2.5 and 3 million pounds, much more than its previous record sale of 420,000 pounds for the Olympic torch from the 1952 Helsinki Winter Olympics.
This ball was used on June 22, 1986 during the historic quarterfinal match between Argentina and England (2-1) in the World Cup in Mexico, a match played four years after the Falklands war between the two countries.
But it was Maradona’s incredible double, scored in the 51st and 55th minute, that inscribed the match in football history. The Argentine captain scored the first goal, validated by the referee, with his left fist. He would later admit to having marked "a little with the head and a little with the hand of God".
To score his second goal, Maradona started from his field, got rid of five opponents and scored with a goal close to the post considered "goal of the century" in a FIFA survey in 2002.
Argentina would win that tournament thanks to the impulse of its star, who became one of the best players in history in that match.
"That ball is part of the history of international football. It is undoubtedly a good moment to share it with the world"affirmed the owner of the ball, who was none other than the referee of that famous match, the Tunisian Ali Bennaceur, quoted by the auction house in October.
"I did not see the hand but I had a doubt"Bennaceur confessed to AFP a few days after Maradona’s death, in November 2020, at the age of 60.
In May, the shirt Maradona wore during that match sold at auction for $9.3 million, more than double the price predicted by Sotheby’s.