Soccer legend’s ‘Hand of God’ shirt sells for millions

LONDON — The blue shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored two momentous goals to knock England out of the 1986 World Cup, including the so-called “Hand of God” goal, has sold for a record-breaking sum at an auction.

The Argentinian player, hailed as one of the greatest of all time, described his opening handball goal in the quarterfinal as “a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God.” He then dribbled the ball past a host of England players to score again against goalkeeper Peter Shilton. That strike was later voted the “goal of the century”.

England midfielder

Steve Hodge, who had unintentionally flicked the ball to Maradona on the Hand of God play, swapped shirts with his rival after the game and has owned it ever since.

The shirt, which has spent the last 20 years on loan at the National Football Museum in Manchester, England, went up for auction at

Sotheby’s on Wednesday afternoon for just over $9 million (£7,142,500) — marking a new auction record for any item of sports memorabilia.