Argentina vs England is also the duel of 1986: Maradona, the “Hand of God” and a shirt sourced just before the match in Mexico City that holds the record to this day.
When Argentina and England meet in the semi-final at this World Cup, one match always echoes in the background: the 1986 quarter-final in Mexico, in which Diego Maradona scored with the “Hand of God” and then the “Goal of the Century” within four minutes. The shirt he wore that day became the most expensive football shirt in the world in 2022. Its story begins long before Sotheby's, with a kit problem in the Mexican heat.
Maradona's 1986 shirt: a last-minute improvisation
Argentina had already played their round of 16 match against Uruguay in the dark blue away shirts and practically swam in them: the cotton shirts soaked up sweat and grew heavy in the midday sun, unlike the airier home kit. The players complained, new shirts were needed.
Shortly before the quarter-final against England, a fixture carrying extra tension because of the Falklands War, coach Carlos Bilardo sent several staff members out to scour Mexico City for the lightest possible dark blue kit sets by supplier Le Coq Sportif. A handful of options ended up on the table, and it was Maradona himself who pointed at the one that made the cut: “We'll beat the English in these.”
The new shirts weren't quite finished, though, as crests and numbers were missing. The numbers were sourced from an American football shop and glittered silver instead of the usual white, while the crests were only sewn on the day before the match. In these thoroughly improvised shirts, the Albiceleste played one of the most famous matches in World Cup history. Argentina never wore them again.
The 2022 auction: Maradona's shirt becomes the most expensive football shirt ever
After the final whistle, Maradona swapped his shirt with England's Steve Hodge. Because the crests sat in slightly different positions, it was later even possible to reconstruct which shirt Maradona wore in the goalless first half and which in the historic second. Auction house Sotheby's had this verified by experts: according to their findings, Maradona's family owns the first-half shirt, while Hodge had the second.
Hodge displayed his shirt at the National Football Museum in Manchester for 20 years before putting it up for auction in 2022. Seven bidders entered, the starting bid was five million dollars, and in the end, an anonymous bidder paid the equivalent of around 8.5 million euros. The auction was not without controversy: Maradona's daughter doubted beforehand that it was the second-half shirt. Sotheby's stood by its expert-backed assessment.
To this day, it remains the most expensive football shirt in the world. It is no longer the most expensive shirt overall: a baseball jersey worn by Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series changed hands for the equivalent of around 21.5 million euros in 2024. In football, though, the benchmark remains a dark blue shirt from a shop in Mexico City.
