The ball with which the late-Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona scored his infamous “hand of God” goal is to be sold at auction in London next month
The rare item, which is expected to fetch between €2.9 million to €3.3 million, will go under the hammer just on 16 November — just four days before the start of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The ball belongs to Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser, who officiated the match which saw England eliminated from the 1986 Word Cup quarter finals at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Maradona opened the scoring on that day by punching the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, saying later it had been “a little with the head of Maradona, a little with the hand of God”.
Soon after, Maradona sped past five English defenders and Shilton to slot home a strike that was voted “Goal of the Century” in a 2002 FIFA poll.
Last May, the number 10 shirt that Maradona wore in the quarter final win was sold for more than 9 million euros — a new world record for any piece of sports memorabilia.