Lionel Messi’s original World Cup 2022 shirts fetched a record £7.8 million.
Sotheby’s, an auction company, reports that an unidentified buyer on Thursday purchased soccer legend Lionel Messi’s historic 2022 FIFA World Cup jerseys for an astounding £7.8 million.
The football star donned these six shirts for the first half of one of Argentina’s historic World Cup matches in Qatar last year.
The ultimate sum paid for these legendary shirts, according to Sotheby’s, represents the greatest value for a piece of sports memorabilia this year.
Argentina’s third World Cup championship was won in a penalty shootout against France in the championship match. Messi scored two of Argentina’s three goals, which was a major contribution to their triumph.
For one of the greatest players in football history, this is a momentous occasion, and the sale of these shirts will only serve to cement his legacy as a football hero.
Brahm Wachter, head of Sotheby’s modern collectables division, said in a statement, “These historic shirts are not only a tangible reminder of one of the most important moments in the history of sports, but are principally connected to the pinnacle moment in the career of the most decorated football player in history.”
Over the course of two weeks, an online auction was held in Sotheby’s New York offices to auction off the shirts.
According to Sotheby’s, the UNICAS Project will receive a part of the auction earnings. With support from the Leo Messi Foundation, the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital is spearheading this effort to assist kids with uncommon illnesses.
Messi, 36, spent 17 years with Barcelona before joining Inter Miami in the Major League Soccer. He is the only player in history to have won the Ballon d’Or eight times, an honour given to the best player in the league each year.
Though that didn’t happen, Sotheby’s had hoped that the Messi shirts would set a record for the most expensive auction item ever for sports memorabilia worn during a game.
Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals jersey set a record for the highest price paid for a game-used item of sports memorabilia when it sold for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York last year.