The shirts off his back: Searching for Diego Maradona’s iconic jerseys

The news that Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God“ shirt sold for an astonishing £7.1m probably sent several ex-footballers frantically searching for any memorabilia they may have picked up if they ever shared a field with the great Argentinian.

The price paid out to former England midfielder Steve Hodge – who swapped shirts with Maradona after the famous 1986 World Cup quarter-final – confirms the strength of the sports collectables market, auctioneer, Antiques Road Trip regular and Derby County fan Charles Hanson tells The Independent.

“We are seeing vast sums for football memorabilia,” says Mr Hanson, comparing it even to the market paid out for more traditional art works.

It is thought the shirt was bought by a group or collector in Abu Dhabi after Hodge rejected a last-minute intervention from the Argentinian Football Association and Maradona’s family not to sell.

The game is remembered not only for Maradona’s dubious first goal but his wonderful second, and, giving it a real geopolitical edge, Argentina and England were playing each other for the first time since the Falklands war, four years earlier.

The sale was a “one–off”, says Mr Hanson because of the notoriety of the match and the events which unfolded, but also calls it a “gamechanger” for the market.

He points to a future auction of a shirt worn by Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, another Argentinian, in the game in May 2012 where he scored a dramatic 94th-minute winner to secure the Premier League title in the final game of the season.

“It’s not so much who wore the shirt, it’s what the person achieved in it,” says Mr Hanson.

The good news though for anyone looking for similar precious Maradona memorabilia is that there are three more shirts out there worn by the great man wore while playing against England.

None will be as expensive as the one just sold, but that sale also emphasised the strength of the Maradona market, which has only grown stronger since the footballer died aged 60 in November 2020.

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The Argentinian superstar only played against England twice in his career. As well as the 1986 World Cup clash, he also played at Wembley in a 1980 friendly, aged just 19. In both games, Maradona played in a different shirt in each half.

In the earlier game, Argentina were the world champions – having been crowned two years earlier. In 1986, they would go on to win the World Cup again. In both games Maradona was the central story.

In 1980, in a football world before social media and wall-to-wall broadcasting, there had been only rumours and the vaguest of glimpses for English fans that football had a new superstar. In May that year, Maradona confirmed it.

Despite England winning 3-1, the game is best remembered for one first half piece of skill from Maradona. He glided past four English defenders and narrowly missed, shooting beyond goalkeeper Ray Clemence’s far post.

Maradona would later recall of his glorious second goal in the “Hand of God” game of 1986 – voted the best ever in a World Cup – that as he bore down on England’s goal he remembered the 1980 miss and this time chose to shoot inside Peter Shilton’s near post.

The shirt worn during the first half of that 1980 game was initially given by Maradona to a teammate and close friend from his first club, Argentinos Juniors. It has now ended up in the hands of football shirt collector and airline pilot Javier Maluf, originally from Argentina.

Mr Maluf tells The Independent he thinks the shirt is worth around £100,000 but says it is not for sale, though he says he may wear it to the World Cup final in Doha later this year – if Argentina are playing.

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The second half shirt worn in that game was swapped at the full-time whistle with the biggest star in English football at the time, Kevin Keegan. It is not known what happened to the shirt after the game.

The third shirt – worn in the first half of the 1986 game – is thought to be in Argentina. Before the recent auction, Maradona’s family disputed that Hodge had the actual “Hand of God” shirt and said they knew who did, but would be “crazy” to reveal who it was.

As if the £7m paid out for the shirt is not implausible enough, the back story behind it is just as remarkable. “The cheapest shirt ever became the most expensive shirt ever,” says Mr Maluf.

According to Mr Maluf, the Argentinian coach at the 1986 World Cup, Carlos Bilardo, was well known for paying great attention to detail. Bilardo was concerned that the shirts used in previous matches by Argentina would prove too heavy as the England game approached. Kick-off for the quarter-final was noon Mexico City time, and a sweltering heat was assured. He asked the kit provider, Le Coq Sportif, to come up with a light shirt in time for the match but that proved impossible.

To try and give his players any advantage, Bilardo then sent out a member of his staff, Ruben Moschella, to trawl around Mexico City sports shops to try and find a suitable light kit. This was just three days before the match.

Moschella came back armed with two polyester shirts. Bilardo was unimpressed but as they were chatting, goes the story, Maradona passed and approved one of their shirts.

“Maradona said, ‘don’t worry, we are going to beat England with this jersey’,” says Mr Maluf.

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And if it was good enough for Diego, it was good enough for the rest of the team.

Moschella was sent back to the shop and bought 38 shirts, for “a maximum of $10”, says Mr Maluf.

One of those shirts, costing approximately 25 cents, seemingly ended up being the £7m shirt. Even the numbers were put on cheaply, with American football shirts from another local sports shop quickly ironed on to the backs.

From such cheap origins, an iconic piece of sporting memorabilia was born.

And there is one more twist; by that stage in his career, Maradona would usually only swap with opposition players who wore, like him, the No 10 shirt, says Mr Maluf.

The opposition No 10 that day? Gary Lineker.