Camila Sosa
Dalma Maradona stated that the jersey Sotheby’s is auctioning for $7.2 million euros is not the one worn by her father Diego Armando Maradona when he scored the goals against England in the quarterfinals of the Mexico ’86 World Cup.
Diego Armando Maradona passed away on November 25, 2020, and since then his heirs have been under the public eye for several reasons. This time Dalma, the eldest of the daughters he had with Claudia Villafañe, reported that the shirt auctioned is indeed the one Maradona gave to former English soccer player Steve Hodge, after the match they played in June 1986 in the World Cup, but it is not the same shirt with which the “10” scored the two goals that gave the victory to the Argentine National Team.
Last week, it became known that the blue jersey of the Argentina National Team with the “10” on the back, which was exhibited for 18 years at the Manchester Football Museum, was now being auctioned at Sotheby’s, the bookmaker.
The auction amount is $7.2 million euros, a scandal, but they have it in the bidding house as the “La Mano de Dios” T-shirt (the Hand of God), and that is the reason for its value.
Dalma Maradona’s Statement
Dalma did not confess who has the shirt of the second half, with which Diego scored both the goal of “La Mano de Dios” and the “Gol del siglo” (Goal of the Century), but flatly denied that it is the one that is being auctioned, even saying that his own father had stated it a long time ago: “It is not that one. I don’t want to say who has it because it’s crazy. He (Diego Maradona) said it. He said: ‘How am I going to give him the jersey of my life?'”.
Maradona’s eldest daughter continued: “This ex-player thinks he has the shirt of the second half of my dad, but he’s wrong, he has the shirt of the first half”.
She also said that they only want this information to be known because there will surely be people who want to buy it: “We wanted to clarify that so that people who want to buy it know the truth.”
For its part, a Sotheby’s spokesman told AFP that a prior investigation was made before putting the garment up for auction, and that they knew Maradona wore two shirts in the match: “Indeed, Maradona wore a different shirt in the first half, but there are clear differences between that one and the one he wore during the goals. So, before putting this jersey on sale, we did a lot of due diligence and scientific research on the item to make sure it was the jersey Maradona wore in the second half for the two goals.”
The thorough review was done with photographs of that match, comparing all details with the garment Hodge presented: “with both objectives, unique details were examined on several elements of the item, including the patch, stripes and numbering”.
Meanwhile, the online auction is scheduled to run from April 20 to May 4, and several candidates are expected to bid for the garment.
