Maradona’s World Cup Trophy to Go Under the Hammer; Trophy Was Stolen in 1989 Bank Heist

By Kazunori Hirachi/ Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

15:12 JST, May 8, 2024

PARIS — The Golden Ball trophy awarded to Diego Maradona in 1986 when Argentina won the World Cup in Mexico will go under the hammer, according to the French auction house Aguttes, which will hold the auction.

Maradona, who died in November 2020 at 60, received the trophy as the best player at the event.

The golden trophy is about 28 centimeters tall, measures about 15.8 centimeters in diameter and weighs about four kilograms. The auction will take place in Paris suburb on June 6.

According to the online edition of France Football, a specialist soccer magazine in France, the trophy went missing in 1989 when it was stolen from a bank in Naples, where Maradona was playing at the time. In 2016, a man successfully bid several hundred euros on a number of trophies at an auction in Paris and noticed that one of them was Maradona’s missing trophy. The man reportedly expects the trophy to fetch between €12 million-€15 million (about ¥2 billion-¥2.5 billion).

Maradona contributed to Argentina winning the World Cup by scoring the “Hand of God” goal and by sprinting past five opposition players to win a point. In 2022, a uniform he wore fetched about £7.14 million (about ¥1.16 billion at the time) at auction.