Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball sells for £2.5m at auction

The match ball Diego Maradona punched past Peter Shilton in Argentina’s infamous 1986 World Cup quarter-final win over England has gone under the hammer for £2.5m.

The Adidas Azteca ball, used throughout Argentina’s 2-1 defeat of England at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, was sold by US auction house Heritage Auctions on Saturday. It realised US$3.3m — some way short of the near-US$10m figure that a few in the memorabilia trade had mooted in the build-up. Even so, the price confirms the ball’s status among a tiny elite of sporting objects whose value derives entirely from a single, still-debated afternoon.

A goal that still divides football

Maradona’s moment of infamy arrived shortly after half-time with the tie scoreless. The Argentine got above both Shilton and Steve Hodge to meet a cross, and his left fist directed the ball over the line as the England goalkeeper protested furiously to no avail. The officials let it stand, and the rest, as they say, went down in folklore.

Asked about it afterwards, Maradona was characteristically mischievous, suggesting those responsible for the goal were one part himself and one part the hand of God. A little over ten minutes later he produced the other famous passage of that afternoon, the bewitching solo run that took him past five England outfield players before he rolled the ball into the net — the strike that became known as the goal of the century.

From the referee’s boot to the auction room

The ball owes its passage to the blocklist of history to Ali Bin Nasser, the Tunisian official who refereed the match. He collected it at full-time and kept it in his possession for more than three decades, before signing a letter in 2023 confirming it was the only ball used across the 90 minutes — an assertion subsequently verified by independent authentication.

Bin Nasser first sold the ball in 2022, when it fetched US$2.37m, or about £1.74m. Its subsequent owner put it straight back up for sale the following year, but it failed to find a buyer after the bidding did not reach the reserve price. This time around it cleared its minimum without difficulty.

Heritage’s specialist auctioneer Mike Provenzale told Reuters before the sale that the ball was a one-of-one item and, in his estimation, arguably the most significant piece of football memorabilia in existence.

Company with the shirt

The final price puts the ball in distinguished company. The shirt Maradona wore in the very same match was sold at auction in 2022 for £7.1m, underlining the enduring commercial pull of one of the most controversial — and most replayed — afternoons in the history of the World Cup.

For England supporters the result remains a wound reopened at every four-year cycle; for collectors it is now a prized, and very expensive, piece of sporting heritage. The ball carries with it the full weight of that contradiction — revered as an icon of the beautiful game by some, remembered as an injustice by others. Few relics anywhere can claim to stir quite as much feeling, which is exactly why, four decades on, it still commands a fortune at auction.