The football with which Diego Maradona scored his famous 'Hand of God' goal at the 1986 World Cup has sold at auction for £2.5m. Maradona famously punched the ball past goalkeeper Peter Shilton in Argentina's 2-1 quarter-final win over England.
After the game, he told reporters it had been scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God." Maradona later scored what became known as the 'Goal of the Century' in the same game, dribbling past five England outfield players before slotting the ball past Shilton.
Though it sold for $3.3m (£2.5m) at Heritage Auctions in the United States on Saturday, the ball had been expected to fetch nearer $5m to $6m. Arguably the most significant soccer item that exists, Tunisian Ali Bin Nasser, who refereed the match in 1986, collected the Adidas Azteca ball at full-time and kept it for more than three decades.
In 2023, he decided to put it up for auction, confirming it was the authentic ball used during the entire historic match, a fact supported by further independent authentication.