Maradona "Hand of God" World Cup Ball
On June 22, 1986, at the Estadio Azteca, Diego Maradona scored two goals four minutes apart that would define the sport's moral and aesthetic extremes: the "Hand of God," a fisted deflection past goalkeeper Peter Shilton that the referee allowed to stand, and the "Goal of the Century," an 11-second run past five England defenders that FIFA.com voters later crowned the best in World Cup history. This is the Adidas Azteca match ball from that quarter-final, backed by a signed letter of provenance from referee Ali Bennaceur, who took the ball off the field afterward, got fellow officials Bogdan Dotchev, Berny Ulloa, and Idrissa Traore to countersign it, and held onto it in Tunisia for more than 30 years. Sports Investors Authentication and a second independent photo-matching service each concluded that the ball's game-worn scuffing, faded markings, and a distinctive elongated mark across one panel align with period photography from both goals. Few match-used objects can claim participation in one historic sporting moment, let alone two contained in the same four minutes.
