"A little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God." Thirty-eight years on, that single punch is now expected to be worth $10 million.
The football Diego Maradona used to score that goal — the most controversial in World Cup history — goes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in Texas between August 21 and 23, with a $2.5 million opening bid. The auction house is confident it clears eight figures by the time the gavel falls.
One ball, two moments of genius
What makes this particular ball extraordinary isn't just the handball. It's that the same match, the same ball, produced arguably the greatest individual goal ever scored. In the space of four minutes at the Estadio Azteca, Maradona punched one in and then dribbled past half the England team to score another. Two goals. Two legends. One football.
Dan Imler, vice-president of sports at Heritage Auctions, didn't undersell it: "I think it's easily the most historic ball in the realm of soccer." Hard to argue. The 1986 quarter-final sits at the centre of football mythology — England vs Argentina, five years after the Falklands War, decided by a fist and a moment of individual brilliance that still gets replayed on loop decades later.
Argentina won the match 2-1 and went on to lift the World Cup. Maradona, already revered, became something closer to a religion in Buenos Aires.
What $10 million actually buys you
For context, this isn't just a collector's item with a good story attached. A $10 million sale would place it among the most expensive pieces of sports memorabilia ever sold — in any sport. The market for football artefacts has never reached that ceiling before. Whoever pays it is buying football history outright.
The $2.5 million opening bid alone signals the level of buyer Heritage is targeting. This isn't eBay. Bidding opens August 21.
