Maradona's 'Hand of God' Ball Sells at Auction for US$3.35 Million — Far Below US$10 Million Estimate
The ball that Diego Maradona punched into the net for his infamous 'Hand of God' goal has sold at auction for US$3.35 million — well short of the roughly US$10 million (about £7.3 million) it had been expected to fetch.
Heritage Auctions conducted the sale on Saturday, 23 August 2026. The final price, including the buyer's premium — the fee the auction house adds on top of the winning bid — translated to roughly £2.5 million, according to BBC Sport. The Athletic and Yahoo Sports both reported the US$3.35 million figure on 23 August; the BBC's report on 24 August gave the sterling equivalent (The Athletic; Yahoo Sports).
It was still more than the ball had previously sold for, The Athletic reported.
The goal itself needs little introduction to football fans, but the background matters for anyone new to the story. On 22 June 1986, Argentina met England in the quarter-final of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City. Maradona, Argentina's captain and attacking talisman, scored the opening goal by raising his fist and nudging the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. The referee did not see the handball and allowed the goal. Maradona later told reporters the goal was scored 'a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God' — and the name stuck.
Four minutes later, Maradona dribbled past five England players to score what FIFA later voted the 'Goal of the Century.' Argentina won 2–1 and went on to lift the trophy.
The shirt Maradona wore during that quarter-final has had its own auction history. Sotheby's in London sold it for US$9.3 million, against an estimate of US$600,000–$1,000,000 — a staggering leap from the house's published expectations (Sotheby's). England midfielder Steve Hodge had swapped shirts with Maradona at full-time, to the dismay of his teammates, and held on to it for decades before consigning it (Sotheby's).
The ball, meanwhile, was kept by the Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser, who officiated the match. He retained it for nearly forty years before bringing it to market.
For collectors and football fans, the gap between the shirt's US$9.3 million and the ball's US$3.35 million may come as a surprise. Both objects come from the same match, the same moment in sporting history. But auction results depend on timing, estimate-setting, and which buyers happen to be in the room — or online — on the day. The ball's US$10 million guide was ambitious, and the market decided otherwise.
What the sale does confirm is that the appetite for Maradona memorabilia remains strong, even when the numbers fall short of hopes. The Argentine died in November 2020 at the age of 60, and his legend — controversies and all — has only grown in the years since.
