The differences between the two shirts that Maradona wore against England and Dalma's last message that generates new hypotheses

The controversy broke out on one side and the other side of the ocean. The debate is symbolic, but also millionaire. Two t-shirts from a single edition, exclusive, but one of them has greater historical weight because it marked the World Cup forever. On Sunday, June 22, 1986, the Argentine team used a substitute jacket model to face England in the quarterfinals. By order of coach Carlos Bilardo, a set of emergency shirts was purchased in Mexico that had to be embroidered by employees of the premises where the albiceleste was concentrated. It is estimated that there were only two shirts per player, so the combo of copies would only reach around 40 according to statements by some protagonists of the event.

The center of the lights is placed on the two that Maradona wore that day. One shirt in the first half and another in the second, when he scored the two most significant goals in World Cup history. A millionaire auction to be held in Britain opened the debate: does former English footballer Steve Hodges put up for sale the model that the Ten put on in the first half or the second half?

The company in charge of organizing the bid claims to have used a method called “Resolution Photomatching” — which consists of matching images of that meeting with those of the t-shirt for sale — and insists that the shirt in question is the one from the second half. The Diez family, headed by their daughter Dalma Maradona and his ex-wife Claudia Villafañe, claim that the jacket to be auctioned is the one for the first half.

The questions could be a simple detail, but the world of collectors was revolutionized by the crossing of versions. Sotheby's — a renowned auction house founded in the mid-1700s — expects that the economic dispute over the shirt that will begin next Wednesday, April 20, will end in a sum ranging from $5 million to nearly $8 million, setting an absolute record for items of this type.

The peculiarity of the case is that the shirts were used only for this match because they were bought urgently in Mexico. At the same time, both the placing of numbers and the embroidery of the shield did not undergo an industrialization process and was done by hand by employees the previous day, as did a video that Maradona himself shared years ago on social networks.

Given this, each shirt has its own identity as a result of this manual work. Although the auction house put its arguments on the table, from the side of the Maradona family they also expressed themselves. Beyond the radio statements that Claudia and Dalma made at the time claiming that Steve Hodge is lying, the daughter of the Pelusa used his social networks in the face of the growth of the controversy: “Anyone who has two fingers in front knows that my dad would never have given that shirt to anyone. He gave it to him for a reason in the locker room and not on the court. I also understand that this person was built on that big lie. Don't worry, the one you have is valuable just as much.”

After a photo of her mother wearing an alternate shirt from Argentina went viral years ago and comparisons were made with the one worn by Diego against England, Dalma suggested from her social networks that the jacket she is talking about was not seen in public and opened a new hypothesis on the subject: “What do you know who has the shirt? What do you know if the shirt we talk about is the one in my mom's picture? I am very angry because nothing is even consulted, it is stated directly! And then we see.”

At the same time, a video was refloated of a visit made by the Versus program that was broadcast on Telefé where Villafañe showed a shirt he had in his possession at the time, pointing it out as the second half: “This is a recovered one, which is the one of the famous goal, that of the English”.

However, it is not a material that allows a thorough analysis of the details, since it is only shown for a few seconds. Broadly speaking, the shield does not seem to be similar to the one that Claudia wore in a 2009 match in Argentina. In addition, the number on the back seems to be different, but that opens the fan to multiple conjectures: is it a camera effect? Was the number on that shirt changed? Does the private museum of the Maradona family have more than one copy of that model in its possession?

Raúl Moschella, the AFA employee who was in charge of searching for the shirts at the last minute in Mexico for the employees to reform, broke the silence in the last few hours in dialogue with Radio La Red and recalled when he bought the last available shirts from a local clothing house: “It would be 40 shirts, that's the truth. I don't add anything.” “It was like this: I bought all 40 shirts because the archers already had them. They had to be numbered and the shield. The people of America gave me those shiny numbers. We did not have the shields and they were brought by the son of the director who was a fan of Argentine football: they were the old shields that do not have the laurel,” he said about what happened with the shirts for that team that consisted of 19 field players. In other words, there were two available per player and there would be two more left. Were there more than two games for Ten?

“I don't remember how much I paid them. At that time there were 300 dollars in the two games, it would be a lot, but I don't remember. I don't know if it was the first half or the second half, I didn't go into the locker room. Everyone changed their shirts in the first half at the end, but I wasn't in the locker room. There were two games, if they changed it I don't know. I'm talking about changing the one in the first half, which is transpired, the prop gives him the other to enter the second. I don't know if he changed it there, I don't go into halftime,” Moschella said.

The company in charge of the auction argues its position from the “Resolution Photomatching” process where, they assured, they visualized differences in the versions in the “front patch” but also the “alignment of the blue stripes with the personalized shield” and “the special numbers on the back and details on the sleeves ”.

“The conclusive comparison of images based on the frayed threads and stitching imperfections on the front patch of the shirt. The comparisons analyzed led us to conclude that these characteristics are unique to this specific t-shirt. The alignment of the blue stripes with the personalized crest on the front of the shirt, the special numbers on the back and the details of the sleeves also confirm that they match the images of Maradona in the second half. These characteristics were determined as not unique and identical enough to use for testing, but as supporting matching features. It should be noted that the stripes on the shirt in some images of Maradona appear inverted and distort the original clarity. But we confirmed that after a thorough analysis the shirt matches the images of the second half. Multiple photos were used to reach the determination,” they clarified in a certificate of authenticity signed by John Robinson, who is presented as founder and owner of “Resolution Photomatching”.

In its publication to announce the sale, Sotheby's auction house shared different high-quality photos of the shirt they have in their possession and a series of comparisons between the crest of the shirt they own and supposed postcards from the second half. However, so far there have been no samples that allow differentiating the alignment of the stripes or numbers on the back that marked on the certificate.

Although the blue shirt has two slightly different shades of the same color, in the shots of that match it should be borne in mind that the shades of blue can be modified by how light is reflected on the fabric, the perspiration or the folds caused by the movements of Maradona's body when the photograph was shot. Doubts remain in the air and the debate remains open while both positions hold their arguments. A subtle, but millionaire difference: in the second half he scored two of the most important goals in history.

THE DETAILS ON THE SHIELDS

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