American auction house Heritage Auctions will sell the football used by Diego Maradona in Argentina's 1986 World Cup quarterfinal match against England. The auction is scheduled for August 21 to August 23 with a starting price of $2.5 million.
Final bids are estimated to exceed $10 million, according to auction house projections. Dan Imler, vice president of sports at Heritage Auctions, told news agency Agence France-Presse in comments reported by RMC Sport that he considers the ball to be the most iconic in football history, emphasizing that the market for rare sports memorabilia has grown significantly.
Maradona scored both goals in Argentina's 2:1 victory using the single ball. He famously described his first goal in the 51st minute as being scored partly with the head of Maradona and partly with the hand of God, a claim that became a World Cup myth before he later explicitly admitted was a handball.
Ball provenance and authentication
Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur, who officiated the match, explained in a 2023 letter published by Argentine newspaper La Nacion that FIFA regulations at the time made the head referee responsible for the match ball and confirmed it was the only ball used for all 90 minutes. Assistant referees Bogdan Dotchev, Benry Ulloa Morera, and Idrissa Traore signed the ball after the final whistle, and their signatures remain visible today.
Heritage Auctions stated that two sports memorabilia authentication companies confirmed Bennaceur's account, relying primarily on photographs. Bennaceur first auctioned the ball in November 2022, when bidding reached $2 million. An attempt to resell it on the Goldin collectibles platform in February 2023 reached $2.04 million but failed to sell after missing the undisclosed reserve price.
Match history and memorabilia market
The ball was also used four minutes after the first goal when Maradona scored what is widely called the goal of the century. Dariusz Wołowski, a journalist for Sport.pl, wrote that Maradona covered the length of the pitch from his own half in 10 seconds, touching the ball 10 times and bypassing six English players in an act of pure genius still considered the greatest goal in football history.
The projected $10 million sale follows other record prices for memorabilia from the 1986 match. Maradona's shirt from the game sold at auction in 2022 for $9.28 million, remaining the most expensive football jersey sold in history, while the captain's armband he wore in the match recently sold for $512,000.
