A set of six white-and-blue shirts worn by soccer star Lionel Messi for his home team of Argentina during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year are being sold through an online auction at Sotheby’s later this month and are expected to fetch more than US$10 million.
Argentina won the World Cup with Messi at the team’s helm in December, prevailing over France. As captain of the team, Messi wore the shirts that are now heading to the auction block in the first of the final, semi-final, quarter-final, round of 16, in two of three group stage matches, Sotheby’s said in a news release.
If the No. 10 jerseys sell for more than US$10 million, they could beat the current highest price for sports memorabilia at a public auction—the US$10.1 million achieved from the sale of basketball great Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 jersey last September 2022 at Sotheby’s.
The record for game-worn item soccer memorabilia is from another Argentinian star—Diego Maradona, whose “Hand of God” shirt achieved US$9.3 million in May 2022 at Sotheby’s London.
The current record for a single Messi jersey is US$450,000, achieved at Goldin Auctions that same month for a jersey he wore as an FC Barcelona player in the April 2017 edition of El Clásico, a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. According to Sotheby’s, memorabilia from Messi rarely comes to market.
The shirts have added significance as they were worn as Messi finally achieved a World Cup win after five appearances at the tournament. Although it was the third championship for Argentina, it was the first for the nation in 36 years.
AC Momento, a U.S.-based mobile app for sports fans that also partners with athletes to manage their sports-worn memorabilia, is selling the shirts and donating a portion of the proceeds to the UNICAS Project, which is led by Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital with the support of the Leo Messi Foundation. The purpose is to help children with rare diseases.
“The winner of this sale will enjoy a profound connection to the pinnacle moment in the career of the greatest player of all time and own the most important collection of football shirts from any single event in the history of the sport,” John Brennan, founder and CEO of AC Momento said in a news release.
The auction opens on Nov. 30 and runs through Dec. 14. Fans can take a look at the shirts at that time at Sotheby’s galleries in New York.
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