Maradona 'Hand of God' ball fetches £2 million at auction

Gulf Today Report

The ball Diego Maradona handled to score his infamous “Hand of God” goal against England's 1986 World Cup squad was sold at an auction for £2 million ($2.4 million).

The white Adidas Azteca ball, which belonged to Tunisian match referee Ali Bin Nasser, had been tipped to fetch up to £3 million.

It comes six months after the jersey worn by Maradona in the historic quarter-final in Mexico City sold at auction for nearly $9.3 million more than double the value expected by Sotheby's.

The auctioned ball was used throughout the 90 minutes of the 1986 match between Argentina and England, as it was years before the multi-ball system began in football.

The confrontation saw a surge due to political tensions after the Falklands War in 1982 and came to be defined by conflicting goals scored by Maradona, who died aged 60 of heart failure in November 2020.

For the first, Maradona ran into the box, rose with England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and punched the ball into the net.

Then he said the goal was scored "partly with Maradona's head, partly with the hand of God".

The second came, four minutes later, as Maradona passed five England players and Shilton to score the “goal of the century,” according to a 2002 FIFA poll.