The shirt worn by football great Diego Maradona when he scored the famous ‘Hand of God’ against England in the 1986 World Cup has been sold for £7.1 million.

The shirt, which was put up for sale by England midfielder Steve Hodge, is thought to be the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold.

Mr Hodge swapped shirts with Maradona after the famous world cup quarter-final in Mexico .

The former England midfielder had initially refused to put the shirt for sale after Maradona died in 2020.

However, Sotheby, a public auction, sold the shirt for more than its estimated worth of £4 million to £6 million.

The shirt is arguably the most coveted football shirt to ever come to auction, according to Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, and it holds the auction record for any object of its kind.

The previous record was held by New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth’s baseball jersey, which sold for $5.6 million (£4.4 million) in 2019.

The original Olympic manifesto, written in 1892, sold for $8.8 million (approximately £7 million) in the same year, becoming the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia.

Hodge, a 59-year-old midfielder who played for Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Leeds United, and Tottenham Hotspur and won 24 caps for England, had owned the iconic blue Argentina away shirt since swapping it with Maradona in the tunnel at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City after Argentina’s 2-1 victory.

Since Sotheby’s in London put the shirt up for auction in April, there has been some controversy about it, with Maradona’s family claiming it was not the shirt he wore when he scored the iconic ‘Hand of God’ goal.

The shirt, made by Le Coq Sportif, has been publicly displayed as the one worn by the Argentine great. It was most recently housed at Manchester’s National Football Museum.