Diego Maradona 'Hand of God' Match Shirt

A shirt found in a hurry

Argentina beat Uruguay 1-0 in the round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup wearing blue cotton shirts that coach Carlos Bilardo thought would be too heavy for the midday heat of Mexico City. He asked the team's kit supplier, Le Coq Sportif, for lighter blue shirts for the quarterfinal, but there was no time to make them.

With three days to go, Bilardo sent Ruben Moschella, a member of his staff, out to search the shops of the Mexican capital. 'We ran from one side of the city to the other with a backpack,' Moschella later said. He came back with two different blue shirts, one darker and one lighter. The staff weighed them and could not choose. Maradona walked in, looked at the lightly striped one and said, 'That's a nice jersey. We'll beat England in that.' Moschella went back and bought 38 of them.

What followed was improvised. A designer made makeshift Argentine Football Association badges, which were sewn on opposite the Le Coq Sportif logo. The only numbers Moschella could find were made for American football uniforms, so silver numerals were ironed on the backs. 'The numbers were a joke,' Maradona wrote in his memoir Touched by God. 'Some of the guys had sparkles on their face because the numbers were silver and sparkling.' On the surviving shirt the badge edges are visibly peeling away from the rushed hand stitching, and the numbers are uneven.

Four years after the Falklands

The match was played on June 22, 1986, at the Estadio Azteca, four years after the Falklands War. Argentina had invaded the islands on April 2, 1982, and a British naval task force retook them within two months; the conflict cost 285 British and 659 Argentine lives. The rivalry on the field went back to the 1966 World Cup, when Argentina captain Antonio Rattin was sent off in a quarterfinal at Wembley and England manager Alf Ramsey called the Argentine players 'animals.'

After the match Maradona tied the win to the war: 'Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge.' Roberto Perfumo, a former Argentina defender, said that in 1986 'winning that game against England was enough. Winning the World Cup was secondary for us.'

The tournament itself had been moved. Colombia, the original host, withdrew in November 1982, and Mexico became the first country to host the World Cup twice. A severe earthquake in September 1985 raised doubts about the plan, but the stadiums were not damaged and the tournament went ahead from May 31 to June 29, 1986.

Two goals in four minutes

The first half ended 0-0, with Argentina holding most of the ball and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton making several saves. Six minutes into the second half, Maradona cut in from the left and played the ball to Jorge Valdano. It reached Steve Hodge, England's left midfielder, who tried to hook it clear and miscued it into the air toward his own goal. Shilton came out to punch it. Maradona, about 8 inches shorter than the 6-foot-1 Shilton, got there first and knocked it in with his left hand. Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser said he did not see the handball and allowed the goal.

Afterward Maradona said the goal was scored 'a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.' Years later he was blunter: 'I knew it was my hand.' He also recalled calling his teammates over to celebrate so the goal would stand.

Four minutes later, in the 55th minute, he took the ball inside his own half and ran about 60 yards in roughly 10 seconds, past Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher twice and Terry Fenwick, then sent Shilton the wrong way and scored. In 2002 fans voting on FIFA's website named it the Goal of the Century. Gary Lineker scored for England in the 81st minute, his sixth goal of the tournament, but Argentina held on to win 2-1 and went on to beat West Germany 3-2 in the final.

The swap in the tunnel and 36 years with Hodge

Hodge had shaken Maradona's hand at the final whistle but saw him being mobbed. On the way to the dressing rooms he spotted Maradona walking with two teammates. 'I looked him in the eye, tugged on my shirt as if to say any chance of swapping? He came straight across, motioned a prayer and we exchanged shirts,' Hodge said. Maradona's own account matches: 'On the way to the locker room, one of the English guys, it turned out to be Hodge, but I wasn't sure at the time, asked me to swap jerseys with him. I said yes, and we did.'

Hodge kept the shirt at home for about 16 years, then lent it to the National Football Museum in England, where it went on show in 2002 and stayed for about two decades. He titled his 2010 autobiography The Man With Maradona's Shirt. After Maradona died in November 2020, Hodge said he was besieged with offers and called reports that he wanted to sell 'disrespectful and totally wrong. It's not for sale.'

Sixteen months later, in April 2022, he consigned it. The sale was announced on April 6, 2022, with an estimate of £4 million to £6 million. Bidding opened on April 20 (one report gives April 22), and for most of the sale there was a single bid at the £4 million reserve. A late bidder offered £4.2 million at 3:51 p.m. on May 4, the final day, and bids kept coming until the sale closed at 4 p.m. at £7,142,500, or $9,284,536. It was the highest auction price for any piece of sports memorabilia, passing the $8.8 million paid in December 2019 for the original 1892 manuscript of the Olympic Manifesto, and far above the previous match-worn record of about $5.64 million for a Babe Ruth Yankees jersey in 2019.

First half or second half?

Argentina used more than one shirt per player that day, and the sale set off a dispute. Maradona's eldest daughter, Dalma, said Hodge had the shirt from the goalless first half, not the one her father scored in. 'He said, how am I going to give him the shirt of my life?' she told reporters. His former wife, Claudia Villafane, called it 'the word of that ex-player against ours.'

The seller's side answered that a different shirt had indeed been worn in the first half, but that there were clear differences between the two. An independent photo-matching firm compared the shirt with images of both goals, looking at the badge, stripes and numbering. Its review cited details such as black stitching on the badge that runs into the yellow, which differs from the first-half shirt, and numbers that line up with the stripes the way they do in second-half photographs. The seller also pointed to Maradona's memoir, in which he describes giving the shirt to Hodge after the match, and noted that the shirt had been displayed as his for nearly two decades without challenge.

The catalog described the shirt as in 'good overall condition consistent with heavy use, perspiration and athletic activity,' with slight de-threading on the front hem and minor spots throughout. It is the blue No. 10 with the hand-sewn badge and silver iron-on numerals, made by Le Coq Sportif.

What it set off

Maradona played every minute of every Argentina match in 1986, scored five goals and set up five more, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. Lineker won the Golden Boot with six goals. Channel 4 viewers in Britain later voted Maradona's performance against England sixth among the 100 greatest sporting moments, and a statue of him scoring the goal stands outside the Estadio Azteca.

The sale reset the market. Before it, the top price for a match-worn football shirt had been about $450,000, paid weeks earlier for a Lionel Messi Barcelona shirt. Four months after the Maradona sale, a Michael Jordan jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.091 million and took the overall record.

Other relics of the match have followed it to auction. The match ball, which referee Ali Bin Nasser kept for 36 years, sold in London in 2022 for £2 million ($2.37 million), failed to meet its reserve at $2.04 million the next year, and sold in 2026 for $3.35 million. In July 2026, for the 40th anniversary, Argentina's rugby team played England in an exact replica of the 1986 kit, silver numbers included.

The numbers

Result

Argentina 2, England 1 (1986 World Cup quarterfinal, June 22, 1986)

Goals

Maradona 51' (Hand of God), 55' (Goal of the Century); Lineker 81'

Attendance

114,580 at the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City

Referee

Ali Bin Nasser (Tunisia)

Maradona at the 1986 World Cup

Every minute of every Argentina match; 5 goals, 5 assists; Golden Ball

Final

Argentina 3, West Germany 2, June 29, 1986

Maradona for Argentina

91 caps, 34 goals, four World Cups

Timeline

1. Oct 30, 1960

   Diego Armando Maradona is born.

2. 1966

   Argentina captain Antonio Rattin is sent off in a World Cup quarterfinal loss to England at Wembley, starting the modern rivalry.

3. Apr 2, 1982

   Argentina invades the Falkland Islands; Britain retakes them within two months.

4. Jun 1986

   Three days before the quarterfinal, staff member Ruben Moschella buys 38 lightweight blue shirts in Mexico City shops; Maradona picks the design.

5. Jun 22, 1986

   Maradona scores the Hand of God goal (51st minute) and the Goal of the Century (55th) in a 2-1 win over England at the Estadio Azteca, then swaps this shirt with Steve Hodge in the tunnel.

6. Jun 29, 1986

   Argentina beats West Germany 3-2 in the final; Maradona wins the Golden Ball.

7. 2002

   The shirt goes on display at the National Football Museum, on loan from Hodge.

8. 2002

   The second goal is voted the Goal of the Century by fans on FIFA's website.

9. 2010

   Hodge publishes his autobiography, The Man With Maradona's Shirt.

10. 2016

    Maradona's memoir Touched by God describes swapping shirts with Hodge on the way to the locker room.

11. Nov 25, 2020

    Maradona dies at 60.

12. Dec 2020

    Hodge says the shirt is not for sale and calls reports that he is shopping it 'disrespectful and totally wrong.'

13. Apr 6, 2022

    The sale is announced with an estimate of £4 million to £6 million; Maradona's daughter and former wife say it is the first-half shirt.

14. Apr 20, 2022

    Bidding opens online; a single bid at the £4 million reserve stands for most of the sale. One report dates the opening to April 22.

15. May 4, 2022

    After a late flurry of bids in the final nine minutes, the shirt sells for £7,142,500, a record for sports memorabilia at auction.

16. Sep 14, 2022

    A Michael Jordan 1998 NBA Finals jersey sells for $10.091 million, taking the overall record.

The world in 1985

• Sep 1985

  A severe earthquake strikes Mexico eight months before the World Cup; the stadiums are undamaged and the tournament goes ahead.

• Jan 28, 1986

  The Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew members, including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

• Feb 9, 1986

  Halley's Comet reaches perihelion on its second visit of the 20th century.

• Feb 19, 1986

  The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.

• Apr 26, 1986

  The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurs in the Soviet Union.

• May 25, 1986

  Hands Across America: at least 5 million people form a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California.

• May 31, 1986

  The World Cup opens in Mexico, the first country to host it twice.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Diego Maradona 'Hand of God' Match Shirt is number 7 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The shirt was not the team's planned kit: it was bought off the shelf in Mexico City three days before the match, and Maradona chose it himself.
• The silver numbers on the back were meant for American football uniforms, the only numerals the staff could find in time.
• Steve Hodge, who ended up with the shirt, was the England player whose miscued clearance set up the Hand of God goal.
• For most of the sale there was only one bid, at the £4 million reserve; the price nearly doubled in the last few minutes.
• Maradona's family insisted Hodge had the first-half shirt; photo matching of the badge stitching and number placement tied it to both second-half goals.
• In 2015 Maradona visited the match referee, Ali Bin Nasser, at his home in Tunisia, gave him a signed Argentina shirt and called him 'my eternal friend.'
• The match ball, kept by the referee for 36 years, has also been sold at auction, most recently in 2026 for $3.35 million.