Messi’s 2022 World Cup shirts sell for $7.8m at auction

Six of the shirts Lionel Messi wore throughout Argentina’s historic 2022 World Cup marketing campaign, together with one from their victory over France within the remaining, offered for $7.8 million at auction on Thursday.

Three bids introduced up the eventual promoting value of $7.8m — a complete together with purchaser’s premium — at Sotheby’s New York.

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The shirts that Messi wore within the first half of six of Argentina’s matches in Qatar have been delivered to auction by tech startup AC Momento and have gone to an nameless bidder.

Despite hopes that the lot would attain a report value, the overall fell wanting the very best value paid for a game-worn jersey at auction, which nonetheless stands at the $10.1m spent in September 2022 on Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 jersey.

That simply edged the $9.28m for Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” Argentina jersey, which was offered in May 2022.

The eventual value is the very best for sports activities memorabilia at auction this yr and units a report for Messi memorabilia. Heading into this auction, the earlier report spent on a bit of Messi match-worn clothes stood at the $450,000 (spent in May 2022) on a shirt he wore for Barcelona in El Clásico in 2017.

Messi captained Argentina to the triumph in December, beating France on penalties within the remaining after an exhilarating 3-3 draw.

The assortment included shirts worn by Messi within the first half of two of the three group stage matches, their 2-1 win over Australia within the spherical of 16, their quarterfinal penalty shootout win over the Netherlands, the 3-0 overcome Croatia within the semifinals, and the victory over France.

Messi introduced the auction again on Nov. 20, saying: “Six World Cup shirts. One auction. Today, my friends at @acmomento are announcing an auction at @sothebys for six shirts I wore during the World Cup in Qatar, including my shirt from the Final.

“Place your bids on-line at Sotheby’s from 30 November – 14 December. A portion of the proceeds from the auction might be donated to UNICAS Project, led by Sant Joan de Déu (SJD) Barcelona Children’s Hospital to fulfill the wants of youngsters affected by uncommon illnesses.”