Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ football sold at auction for €2.87m

Diego Maradona scored twice with the ball in Argentina’s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win over England in 1986 (Matt Alexander/PA)

The football with which Diego Maradona scored his ‘Hand of God’ goal against England at the 1986 World Cup has sold at auction for 3.35million US dollars (€2.87m).

The sale price achieved by Heritage Auctions in the United States was approximately 6.7m USD (€5.7m) below the 10m USD (€8.5m) estimate.

The Dallas-based auction house had placed a 2.5m USD (€2.1m) starting price on the Adidas Azteca ball.

Maradona scored twice in Argentina’s quarter-final victory over England on June 22, 1986 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

He controversially punched the opener beyond England goalkeeper Peter Shilton before scoring a superb individual effort, later voted ‘Goal of the Century’.

The Argentina playmaker, who died aged 60 in November 2020, claimed his contentious first goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.

Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser, who took charge of the match, collected the ball at full-time and kept it for more than three decades.

He sold the ball in 2022 for 2.37m USD (£1.74m). Its new owner again put it up for auction in 2023 but it failed to meet the reserve price.

Maradona’s shirt from the match, which belonged to England midfielder Steve Hodge, sold for a record-breaking £7.1m at auction in May 2022, having only been expected to achieve around £4m.

After defeating England, Argentina went on to become world champions for the second time following a 3-2 victory over West Germany in the final.