After the shirt… Maradona’s famous handball goal is put up for auction

Heritage Auctions said that the ball used in the Argentina-England 1986 World Cup quarter-final match, which became famous for Diego Maradona’s controversial goal known as the “Hand of God,” will go to auction with an opening price of $2.5 million.

The auction house described the piece as the “Holy Grail” for collectors, noting that it could achieve a price similar to the record amount of $9.2 million paid in 2022 for Maradona’s shirt that he wore in the same match.

Mike Provenzel, auction specialist at Heritage, said that there are no similar precedents that can be relied upon to estimate the price that the ball may reach at auction.

“It is a unique piece in every sense of the word,” he told Reuters.

“It is arguably the most important piece of football memorabilia currently in existence.”

The organization of the auction comes at a time when the market for football collectibles is witnessing increasing prosperity, also driven by the holding of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“The United States leads the sports collectibles market,” Provenzel said. “This market really started here and has a huge base of collectors, with their numbers growing at a tremendous pace.”

Although the sports collectibles market has historically remained dominated by four American sports: basketball, baseball, American football, and ice hockey, Provencal said that collecting football collectibles has witnessed growth over the past six or seven years, along with sports that were considered specialized or of limited interest, such as Formula 1 and wrestling.

He pointed out that one of the most prominent transformations was the rapid rise in the value of modern collectibles, especially trading cards, explaining that these cards bearing images of international stars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe are now achieving “extremely high values.”