Monday, August 24, 2026

40 years after, Diego Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ goal ball sells for £2.5 million

• August 24, 2026

Forty years after the historic moment Argentine football legend, Diego Maradona, scored his famous ‘hand of God’ goal against England, the football sold for £2.5 million at auction.

The Adidas Azteca ball with which Maradona scored the hand of God goal sold for £2.5 million on Saturday at Heritage Auctions in the United States.

It first sold for £1.74 million in 2022 by Ali Bin Nasser, the referee who officiated the match in 1986 and kept the Adidas Azteca ball from the game for over three decades.

Mr Nasser, in 2023, official signed a letter confirming the Adidas Azteca ball was the only ball used during the game.

Argentina was one goal behind England, when football meatro Maradona, jumped to push the ball behind Peter Shilton, giving his country an equaliser in the quarter final game of the 1986 World Cup hosted by Mexico.

Maradona later broke through England’s defence to score a wining goal for Argentina in the game, helping Argentina qualify for semi-finals of the World Cup.

The Argentine star told journalists the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.

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