MADRID: The jersey Diego Maradona wore in the 1986 World Cup final was back in Argentine hands Thursday thanks to German great Lothar Matthaus.
Matthaus, who swapped jerseys with Maradona at fulltime in the final won by Argentina in Mexico, returned the historic apparel at a ceremony in the Argentine Embassy in Madrid.
The shirt will be displayed at a new soccer museum in the Spanish capital.
“It was always a great honor to play against him,” Matthaus said of the late Maradona, through a translator. “As a player and a person, he was always someone very important to me. He will always be in our hearts.”
Matthaus said he also exchanged jerseys with Maradona after the 1990 World Cup final won by the Germans in Italy. He said that shirt was in a museum in Germany.
The jersey Maradona wore against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, when he scored the controversial “Hand of God” goal, was sold for more than $9 million in an online auction by Sotheby’s in May, the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of sports memorabilia.
Matthaus was given a plaque at the Argentina Embassy in recognition of his soccer career and contribution of sporting values.
