{"id":578080,"date":"2026-08-08T00:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578080\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:52:25","slug":"maradonas-hand-of-god-ball-heads-to-us-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578080\/","title":{"rendered":"Maradona\u2019s \u2018Hand of God\u2019 ball heads to US auction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The football that Diego Maradona used to score his infamous \u201cHand of God\u201d goal during Argentina\u2019s win over England in the 1986 World Cup is expected to sell for US$10 million at a US auction this month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Maradona\u2019s goal in the quarter-final match at the Estadio Azteca saw him punch the ball past the England goalkeeper, with the South Americans ultimately winning 2-1.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">After the game, the Argentine star said his goal was scored \u201ca little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God\u201d. His nation went on to win the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Heritage Auctions, based in Texas, expects the ball will sell for eight figures when it goes under the hammer from August 21 to 23, with a US$2.5 million opening bid.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI think it\u2019s easily the most historic ball in the realm of soccer,\u201d said Dan Imler, vice-president of sports at Heritage Auctions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Argentina fans gather in Miami, Florida, in July with a flag featuring Diego Maradona. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/58160fc4-ca2a-46c5-bfd5-abb99f24de85_dcea4910.jpg\" title=\"Argentina fans gather in Miami, Florida, in July with a flag featuring Diego Maradona. Photo: Reuters\"\/>Argentina fans gather in Miami, Florida, in July with a flag featuring Diego Maradona. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He noted it was also the ball that Maradona used, in the same match, to score the so-called \u201cGoal of the Century\u201d, in which he dribbled past several English defenders before finishing past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The football that Diego Maradona used to score his infamous \u201cHand of God\u201d goal during Argentina\u2019s win over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9877,45976,444,261366,192938,261367,261365,250483,85,46,203036,105,6866],"class_list":["post-578080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-diego-maradona","tag-england","tag-estadio-azteca","tag-falkland-islands","tag-goal-of-the-century","tag-hand-of-god","tag-heritage-auctions","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-maradona","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}