Diego Maradona received the Golden Ball trophy for his exceptional performance during the 1986 World Cup; it was thought to have been stolen, but it has now been located.
The Aguttes auction house said on Tuesday that the award, which has been absent for decades, will be put up for sale in Paris the following month. The award “should fetch millions due to its uniqueness,” the house added.
After leading Argentina to win in the Mexico-hosted tournament, where he memorably scored the contentious “hand of God” goal against England in the quarterfinals, Maradona was given the Golden Ball trophy.
A former mafia member said that the trophy had been melted down into shards of gold. According to some stories, it was either sold to pay off debts or lost during a high-stakes poker game. Meanwhile, some others allege that in 1989, when Maradona was still playing in the Italian league, he hid it in a safe deposit box at a Naples bank that was subsequently looted by neighborhood thugs.
According to sport specialist Francois Thierry of Aguttes Auction House, who is also quoted by the BBC, the trophy was purchased by an unidentified seller who had no idea what he had bought.
Numerous myths and lore exist, such as the idea that the mafia took it in order to turn it into gold. We made all the required inspections and reported it to the authorities.
The ball has been with us for approximately a year. Before we could declare it to be a good one, we conducted extensive research on it because the maker had provided a lot of information.
“At first, he didn’t realize it was something significant; he purchased it along with a lot of other items,” Thierry continued.
“There were numerous trophies in the case he purchased. After that, he looked it up online and discovered that it might be the Golden Ball.
Maradona’s jersey, along with the match ball from the England game, have previously been sold at auction for millions.
“He is the player of the century, and the trophy represents the apex of his career.
“We expect millions,” Thierry stated. “We can see there were some results from earlier when his shirt against England in 1986 was auctioned for, I think, £9m and the game ball went for £2 million.
On November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, Maradona passed away from heart failure following brain surgery a few days prior.
Read more at;https://sportupdates.co.uk
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