Maradona's shirt in 'La Mano de Dios' is sold for 8.4 million, a record figure: Is it the authentic one?

• Controversy A daughter of Maradona doubts that the shirt that is going to be auctioned is that of his historic goals against England

8,465,688 euros.

Finally they were 8,465,688 euros.

wore

in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico against England, the uniform of 'The Hand of God' and the 'Goal of the Century', was sold this Wednesday at an auction at the British house Sotheby's for that figure, the highest ever dedicated to a sports article, and, like everything that surrounds the Argentine star, he did it between secrecy and controversy.

Who bought it?

According to the newspaper 'La Nación', "a group from Abu Dhabi close to the people who manage Manchester City".

An Argentine collector,

owner of Legends, the largest collection of used shirts in the world, was about to get the jewel, but at the last moment his bid was exceeded.

Although that is almost the least of it.

Because the shirt sold has a history, a lot of history.

For starters: Is it the real deal?

Sotheby's and the former owner, former England player

, say yes, of course.

The auction house alleges that before starting the process they commissioned the Resolution Photomatching company to carry out an "exhaustive study" that determined that, in fact, it was the right shirt.

And Hodge, in fact, uses as an argument an authorized biography in which Maradona himself acknowledged that he had exchanged the garment with him.

"On the way to the locker room, one of the English players - who turned out to be Hodge, but at the time I wasn't sure - asked me to exchange shirts with him. I said yes and we did it," 'El Pelusa' accepted.

But his family today assures that it was not so.

That the shirt is true, yes, but it was not the one Maradona wore in his two goals, but the one he used in the first half.

"This former player thinks he has my dad's second-half shirt, but there is a confusion, he has the first-half one. It's not that one. I don't want to say who has it because it's crazy," said

, daughter of the star, to Agence France-Presse, where he insinuated that his mother,

, wore the famous jacket in a 2009 Argentina match. The experts, on the other hand, deny it using a photo of Villafañe in the box that day.

Because the shirt that Diego Armando Maradona wore in his most remembered game, in two historic goals, was exaggeratedly peculiar.

In fact it was almost unique

The adventure of the prop

Mexican stuff.

As detailed by

, Argentina's kit man at the time, the clothing that that team brought to the country was very thick and for the decisive match against England the players demanded something lighter.

He had to look for 40 jerseys throughout Mexico City and figure out how to add a number and shield to them.

"The people of America [the best team in Mexico] gave me those shiny numbers. We didn't have the shields and they were brought by the director's son who was a fan of Argentine soccer: they were the old shields that don't have the laurel," Moschella said. , who did not want to get wet about whether the Hodges shirt now auctioned was the one from the first or the second part, but did confirm that it was the authentic one or very similar to it.

Be that as it may, the most mythical Maradona shirt, which Hodges had resisted selling for years, broke all records in the world of sports.

Less than three years ago, the original Olympics manifesto sold for €7.9 million at Sotheby's in the US and, for a closer comparison, also in 2019, the first jersey

wore with the New York Yankees reached 5.3 million euros in other auctions.

Behind it, other pearls such as the set of golf clubs that

himself wore

.

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• Diego Maradona

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