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How does Diego Maradona 'Hand of God' shirt compare to other pricey pieces of football memorabilia?

Maradona Hand of God shirt auction

If you were wondering just how remarkable the price that Diego Maradona's Hand of God shirt fetched was, then wonder no more.

The world of football memorabilia went a little bit crazy this week when a private buyer parted with more than £7million for a shirt worn by Diego Maradona.

In fairness, it was the shirt worn by Maradona - the blue Argentina jersey he wore against England in the 1986 World Cup as he scored the infamous Hand of God goal.

It was the most money ever paid out for a piece of sports memorabilia, but how much has previously been shelled out for unique pieces of football history? Planet Sport finds out.

Sir Geoff Hurst 1966 England World Cup Shirt - £91,750

Although £91,750 is the only recorded price for the most iconic shirt in English football history, it has undoubtedly sold for more since.

Hurst made the shirt available for auction in 2000, with a private collector landing it for the above amount. However, it was then bought in 2008 by property investor Andrew Leslau for an undisclosed sum.

Eight years later, Leslau tried to sell it on for a whopping £2.2million. However, it failed to sell. 

Pele 1970 World Cup final shirt - £157,750

Before the Diego Maradona shirt sold, Pele's match-worn Brazil shirt from the 1970 World Cup final was the daddy in terms of expensive football shirts.

The Steve Hodge of this tale was Roberto Rosato, the Italian international who swapped shirts with Pele after the game at the Azteca.
It had a list-price at Christie's of £30,000, so it shocked just about everyone by going for five times the minimum.
Christie's football specialist David Convery said after the sale: "It is undoubtedly the most important shirt in world football. Even so, we are staggered and overjoyed at the price."

England 1966 World Cup winners' medals - £124,000-£164,800

For most English football collectors, anything from the 1966 World Cup is the Mecca of memorabilia.

Over the years a number of the winners' medals from the England players have changed hands with some of them earning absolute fortunes for their owners.

At the same sale as the Pele 1970 shirt, Gordon Banks' 1966 World Cup winners' medal was bought for £124,000. Bobby Moore's was also bought by former club West Ham for an undisclosed amount, reported to be around £150,000 - six times the fee the Irons received from Fulham for Moore in 1974.

The most expensive known amount for an England World Cup winners' medal is the £164,800 paid for Alan Ball's in 2005.

Jules Rimet World Cup replica - £254,500

The Jules Rimet Trophy has always been trouble. It was famously stolen before the 1966 World Cup only to be recovered by a dog called Pickles.

As with all trophies, there was a genuine article and a series of replicas the winning teams were allowed to keep. In 1977, FIFA put one of those trophies up for auction and it brought a hefty price.

With it costing a quarter of a million, which was more than ten times its list price, rumours were that it was not just a Jules Rimet Trophy, but the Jules Rimet Trophy. However, later analysis proved it was just a replica.

The FA Cup - £759,062

If you're a collector and you want a historic football trophy, clearly the FA Cup trumps Jules Rimet every time.

In fairness, there was no doubt about this one's authenticity. There were four FA Cups made when the world's oldest football competition started, and this was one of them.

Not only that, but it was the first of those four to be made, making it the original FA Cup and when it was auctioned at Christie's in 2005 it fetched £478,400. The buyer was David Gold, one of the West Ham owners who was then involved with Birmingham City.

He held onto it until January 2021 when Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bought it for £759,062. The trophy remains on display at the National Football Museum in Manchester, where it has been since 2005.

Football Rulebook (1857) - £881,250

If you struggle to keep up with the rules and regulations of football now, take solace in the face that it always was so.
In fact, in 1857 the oldest football club still in existence, Sheffield FC, produced a very simple pamphlet detailing the laws of football and sold them to raise money.

Fast forward to 2011 and one of those pamphlets, presumably the last one remaining, was auctioned and sold for a whopping £881,250. That's a lot of money for a piece of paper.

Diego Maradona 1986 Hand of God shirt - £7,142,500

For 11 years, that piece of paper remained the most expensive known piece of football memorabilia in the world, but it's fair to say it has now been well beaten.
It is also fair to say that the claim of Christie's 'football specialist' David Convery that Pele's 1970 jersey was "undoubtedly the most important shirt in world football" was also significantly wide of the mark.

England midfielder Steve Hodge had kept this shirt for 36 years and had once even taken it onto the Sky Sports show Soccer AM in a plastic bag.

When he decided to put it up for auction the reserve was set at £4million and was instantly met, eventually building to just over £7million.

We don't know what Diego Maradona did with Hodge's England shirt, but it's probably not worth quite as much…

READ MORE: Sotheby's hails record-breaking fee paid for famous Diego Maradona shirt

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