What kind of jersey is worth thirty million? According to Reuters, CNN and other foreign media reported on the 7th, from April 20 to May 4, a No. 10 coat of the deceased "Argentine ball king" Maradona will be auctioned online. It is worth mentioning that Maradona wore this shirt to create two classic moments in world cup history in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals in Mexico, Argentina and England, creating two classic moments in world cup history - "God's Hand" and the "best goal of the century" with five consecutive people.
A classic that was born in a hurry
The birth of this classic shirt is also "thanks" to the then Argentine coach Carlos Bilardo. Before the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, Bilardo thought that Mexico City was too hot and that the previously designed jersey would affect the players' performance on the field, so he asked the Argentine jersey manufacturer to provide the players with lighter gowns before the game began. However, due to the tight time constraints, the manufacturer was unable to complete this task. In desperation, three days before the start of the game, Bilardo asked coaching staff member Ruben Moschera to search for a suitable blue jersey in the mexico City store.
Maradona staged 'Hand of God' in a match against England
Since then, Moscella has brought back two different jerseys, but the coaching staff cannot choose between the two. At this point, Maradona broke the siege in time, he pointed to one of them and said: "This shirt is really fantastic, wear it and we will definitely beat England!" After hearing this, Moscella rushed to the store, ordered 38 jerseys of the same style, and asked a designer to make some of the emblems of the Argentine Football Association temporarily, sew them on each shirt, and iron the silver numbers on the back of the shirts.
Maradona scored what is arguably the most spectacular goal of the century in World Cup history after five consecutive players.
After the match proved the intuition of the "old horse" to be correct, in that "Anglo-Afghan battle", Argentina used Maradona's "Hand of God" goal and a dragon-like goal that passed five people to win England 2-1 to reach the final four. Subsequently, Argentina's team Lianke Belgium and the Federal Republic of Germany finally won the World Cup.
It is expected to become the most expensive jersey in history
Currently, the classic no. 10 jersey is owned by retired British footballer Steve Hodge, who was also one of the first-hand witnesses of the 1986 World Cup "Anglo-Afghan War".
Fu · Hodge (image from a screenshot of the Nottingham Post report)
The England former midfielder recalled afterwards: "After that game, I don't think I'll ever be here again, so I wanted to get an opponent's shirt as a souvenir. I shook hands with Maradona, but he started celebrating with his teammates and I thought there was no hope. After the interview, I went to the dressing room again, while Maradona walked with two of his teammates. I looked him into the eye and pulled off my clothes again, hinting to him that we had a chance to swap jerseys? Luckily, he walked up to me and said yes, so we exchanged jerseys. ”
For nearly a decade, Hodge has been renting the shirt to the England Football Museum in Manchester for exhibition. Now, Hodge has decided to auction it off, saying: "Whether it's for English or Argentines, or for football lovers around the world, this shirt has a deep cultural connotation, and I'm sure its new owner will be proud to have one of the most classic shirts in the world." ”
According to Sotheby's auction house, the price of this jersey is between 4 million and 6 million pounds, which is about 33.28 million yuan - 49.92 million yuan. Prior to that, the highest auction in the history of sportswear was 4.31 million pounds (about 35.88 million yuan), and the auction item at that time was a New York Yankees jersey worn by the late American baseball star Babel Ruth. Now, Maradona's No. 10 shirt is expected to reach a new high and break that record. A supervisor at Sotheby's recently said: "This jersey is one of the most important sports souvenirs in the world, I don't think I will ever have the opportunity to deal with such a precious object again, and the moment of the 'Hand of God' can be said to be a landmark moment in the history of sports." ”
Maradona's wife and daughter questioned the authenticity of the jersey
It is worth mentioning that Maradona's eldest daughter, Dalma Maradona, expressed doubts about the authenticity of the shirt, saying that Hodge got the shirt that Maradona wore in the first half, not the one he wore for the second half goal.
"This shirt was not worn by her father when he staged 'The Hand of God' and went through five people in a row. In that game, there was a shirt in the first half and a shirt in the second half. I'm pretty sure my father didn't give anyone the shirt he was wearing in the second half. My father had told me how I could give him the most important jersey of my life. I would say that the shirt they were auctioning off was worn by my father in the first half of that game and it was equally precious, but it was a pity that my father didn't score in the first half. ”
In this regard, Sotheby's auction house said that before auctioning the jersey, they carried out a lot of research work.
The jersey (centre) Maradona wore in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in England on 26 November 2020 was exhibited at the Manchester National Football Museum
"We worked with the parties involved to examine all sorts of unique details on the jersey, including stripes, patches and numbers. Maradona did change his shirt during the game, but after all sorts of fine comparisons, we were sure that he was wearing the shirt in the second half of the Anglo-Afghan War. "And what kind of price this jersey will be auctioned for, let's wait and see!"
Maradona's ex-wife, Claudia Villafani, said Hodge did not need to sell the historic shirt. "I don't think he needs the money unless he's auctioning it for legitimate reasons." Of course, if the Argentine Football Association buys it, it would be great. ”
Proofread by Xu Heng