Ruggeri's strong opinion on the controversial auction of the shirt with which Maradona shone against England: what he did with his relics

The auction of the shirt held by Steve Hodge with which Diego Armando Maradona scored both goals against England for the quarterfinals at the end of the World Cup in Mexico 1986 opened a great debate about the value of these relics and why former footballers keep memories or prefer to sell them. Oscar Ruggeri, champion in that edition and finalist in Italy 1990, presented the song on ESPN F90 and told what he was doing with all the pearls he has stored in his home.

The driver Sebastián Vignolo looked at Cabezón and asked him what he would do if his grandson asked him for one of the t-shirts he wore at the World Cup to give it to a companion in the garden. “You're crazy. I grab him and say, 'Come, sit down. ' I give him the shirt and explain. This thing that is here will surely fit you in the future. But you can't give this, you can't sell it, you can't do anything. You have to keep it and it has to be passed on to your children. I want it to be that way. I already passed it on to my children. Now they have the responsibility to tell their children what that shirt is,” explained the defender.

And he took the opportunity to comment on Hodge's decision to sell Maradona's shirt: “For example, the one from England del Diego that moved so much these days, if it is the first half, that of the second half. If they were berretas t-shirts that were bought in Tepito both. The cockerel in one is down here, the other one is up. How do you know what it is. You saw that they priced her seven, eight suits. Millions of dollars. This kid, the English guy, we were like that. One came by and told us 'give me the short'. And you gave it to him as soon as you finished playing. We didn't have a short left. I have the Tata one. I'm going to bring it to you, it was impossible for us to use that.”

To close, he admitted that he is still looking for the whereabouts of the shirt he wore on the day he was world champion against Federal Germany. “I want to find the one in the final, the one with the strip cut here. It is nowhere to be found,” he lamented.

It is worth remembering that, in mid-2021, Ruggeri brought to the program two historic shirts that he was able to rescue from the 1986 World Cup and that are still in perfect condition. The first one he showed on camera was the blue one he used against England in the quarterfinals with number 19 on his back and a blood stain. “Look at the glitters! (Miguel) Zelada got them when he went to Tepito, because we ran out of shirts when we exchanged with Uruguay's players in the round of 16,” revealed the former defender of the Argentine team.

Then, one of the Englishmen with the number 15 on his back belonging to Gary Stevens, who also won in the same match, took from behind his seat. “Look at the quality of the fabric, nothing to do with ours. Look at ours! The thing about this shirt is that we took it out of a fair, we need them because we lost the first two draws,” Oscar explained about the difference in class between the uniforms they used in that feat during the highest competition in the world; the last one that won the national team.

Meanwhile, the auction on the Sotheby's platform starts on April 20, beyond Dalma Maradona's complaint that it is not the shirt that Pelusa wore in the second half of the match against England. It should be noted that the company in charge of organizing the bid claims to have used a method called “Resolution Photomatching” —which consists of comparing images of that meeting with those on the shirt for sale — and insists that the shirt in question is that of the complement. The Diez family, headed by their daughter Dalma Maradona and his ex-wife Claudia Villafañe, claims that the jacket to be auctioned is the of the first half.

Little does it seem to matter to the company that expects the economic dispute to reach a sum ranging from 5 million to almost 8 million dollars, setting an absolute record for articles of this type.

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The unexpected end of the shirt that Steve Hodge gave to Maradona on the day Diego scored both goals for England in the World Cup 86