The shirt worn by Argentine football legend Diego Armando Maradona when he scored two famous goals against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup will be displayed in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup, five months after it was sold at an auction of about $9.3 million, according to Agence France-Presse.

The shirt, which broke all records for the sale of sports collectibles, without revealing the identity of the buyer, according to Sotheby’s auction house, will be loaned to the Qatar Sports Museum and displayed from Sunday until April 1.

Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums Board of Trustees, expressed her happiness to borrow the shirt, as part of an exhibition dedicated to the history of football and the World Cup. “This shirt has come a long way,” she said in a statement to AFP.

She continued, “A lot of the things displayed in the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic Museum and the Sports Museum are symbols of human passion with long, influential stories.”

And to Maradona’s shirt, a ball from the first World Cup final in 1930, the first manuscript of the rules of football and a bronze from the right foot of the Brazilian star Pele, will be displayed in the museum.

The museum was opened at the end of last March inside Khalifa Stadium, one of the eight hosting stadiums for the Qatar 2022 World Cup between November 20 and December 18.

The Argentine collector, Marcelo Ordas, said after selling the shirt last May to the TV channel “La Nacion” in his country that he “unfortunately” failed to offer 6.8 million dollars, in the face of “an offer from the Middle East that arrived at the last minute.”

He added that he had failed in his quest despite “a very great effort” and the help of “several contracting heads”, such as Barcelona defender Gerard Pique and the president of the Argentine Football Association, Claudio Tapia, who wanted to help him “to return this shirt to share with all Argentines”.

 Absolute record

At this price, the blue jersey number 10 set a record, smashing the previous record for the sale of antiques related to sport held by the manuscript of the 1892 Olympic Manifesto by French Baron Pierre de Coubertin that sold for $ 8.8 million in December 2019.

But on September 16 last, a shirt worn by American basketball legend Michael Jordan in 1998 sold for 10.1 million dollars, becoming the most expensive sports piece in the world.

Maradona’s shirt for the first time put football at the highest level in this field, while the market for shirts is often active in American baseball and basketball.

In 1986, Maradona exchanged his shirt at the end of the match with England midfielder Steve Hodge, who loaned it to the National Football Museum in Manchester for more than 20 years before putting it up for sale.

That match was one of the most memorable in the history of the World Cup, and gained special significance for Argentina because it was played just four years after losing the Malwy War.

The match became engraved in football folklore for two goals for Maradona: one infamous and the other the pinnacle of splendor at the famous Asteca stadium in Mexico City.

The first came in the 51st minute when Hodge intercepted a ball on the outskirts of the England penalty area and tried to return it to goalkeeper Peter Shelton. Maradona ran towards it inside the area and rose to follow it with his head the moment the goalkeeper left, but he used his hand to open the scoring.

England players protested to the Tunisian referee, Ali Bennacer, but he did not pay attention to them and scored the goal.

Four minutes later, Maradona hit again and there was no doubt this time. The Argentine star received the ball in the middle of the field and manipulated four English defenders before he bypassed goalkeeper Shelton and shot into the goal, the goal that was chosen as the “Goal of the Century” in a poll conducted by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA).

Then Maradona added two goals against Belgium in the semi-finals, before contributing to his team’s 3-2 victory over West Germany in the final and lifting the prestigious trophy as captain of his country.

Maradona died on November 25, 2020 at the age of 60 as a result of a heart attack, after suffering a long period of health problems.

The sale was controversial as part of Diego Maradona’s family claimed, despite repeated assurances from Sotheby’s, that the shirt was not the one the Argentina captain wore when he scored the two goals against England. Maradona and Hodge told the story of their shirt exchange in their books.

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