One of the most iconic objects in the history of world sports has changed hands. The ball used by the legendary Diego Armando Maradona during the memorable match between Argentina and England in the 1986 Mexico World Cup was sold at an auction held this weekend in the United States for a total of 3.35 million dollars.<\/p>\n\n
The piece, which holds incalculable value for collectors and football fans, was managed by Heritage Auctions. Although expectations were high and some experts projected figures close to 10 million dollars, the final bid settled at 3.35 million after starting with a base of 2.5 million.<\/p>\n\n
The ball was the undisputed protagonist at the Azteca Stadium during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals. It was in that match that Maradona starred in the play that changed the fate of the game: jumping in front of the English goalkeeper, the Argentine star connected with the ball with his hand, scoring a goal that the referee validated and that went down in history under the name of the “Hand of God”.<\/p>\n\n
The goal was scored a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.<\/p>Diego Armando Maradona<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n
That match ended with a 2-1 victory for Argentina, a team that would end up being crowned world champion with a stellar performance by its captain, consolidating this ball as a symbol of Argentine sporting epic.<\/p>\n\n
Comparison with other collectibles<\/h2>\n\n
Despite the historical relevance of the ball, its final value was lower than that reached by another iconic object from the same match: the official jersey worn by Maradona that day. In 2022, that garment was auctioned for a figure exceeding eight million euros, setting a record in the sports memorabilia market.<\/p>\n\n
With this recent transaction, the “Hand of God” ball reaffirms itself as a key piece in the international collectibles market, joining the list of relics that keep alive the legacy of one of the greatest soccer players of all time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maradona’s historic “Hand of God” ball auctioned for 3.35 million dollars One of the most iconic objects in the history of world sports has changed hands. The ball used by the legendary Diego Armando Maradona during the memorable match between Argentina and England in the 1986 Mexico World Cup was sold at an auction held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12809],"tags":[2021,3327,1001,607],"class_list":{"0":"post-148008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-auction","9":"tag-hand-of-god","10":"tag-maradona","11":"tag-soccer"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}