Lionel Messi’s shirt from the 2022 FIFA World Cup final has been sold for a whopping $7.82 million, but that falls short of the record for sports memorabilia well behind Mickey Mantle’s trading card. However, this falls short of the record for sports memorabilia, with items from baseball and basketball fetching up to $5 million more. Surprisingly, Messi’s six jerseys sold for less than a single shirt worn by his fellow countryman, Diego Maradona, in the 1980s World Cup, which fetched in $9.28 million.
Here, we have compiled a list of the top five sports memorabilia sold at auction, with Messi’s jerseys just making the cut.
Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 trading card remains the single most expensive sports memorabilia ever sold at $12.5 million. This card, considered the holy grail of baseball cards, with the former New York Yankees star hitter remembered as one of the greatest to ever play the game.
Basketball superstar Michael Jordan, who shot the Chicago Bulls to fame in the 80s and 90s, had a memorable moment in the 1998 NBA finals against the Utah Jazz. In the season that was dubbed ‘The Last Dance’ due to the team’s upcoming split, Jordan would lead the team to its final NBA title before he retired. In Game 1 in a loss to the Jazz, Jordan came back stronger, guiding the Bulls to triumph in the series. The jersey he sported during that crucial game recently sold for a staggering $10.091 million at a Sotheby’s auction – the same place where Messi’s was sold – breaking the record for the priciest sports jersey ever.
In 1986, Diego Maradona scored an unforgettable goal and a controversial one against England in the World Cup. He went on a remarkable solo run to score, then used his hand to score again just four minutes later, knocking England out of the tournament. After the match, Maradona swapped shirts with England’s Steve Hodge. This famous shirt has changed hands several times, and last year it fetched a massive $9.28 million at auction.
While you might be wowed by the sports gear, jerseys, or collectible cards that appear at high-value auctions, something as simple as a few scribbled pages might not grab your attention. However, Pierre de Coubertin’s manuscript from 1892 certainly did. This document outlined Coubertin’s idea for a modern-day Olympic Games, which he presented in an inspiring speech at the Sorbonne. Without Coubertin’s persuasive argument, we wouldn’t be cheering for our home team every four years. In 2019, Sotheby’s auctioned off the original manuscript for a whopping $8.8 million.
Lionel Messi secured a World Cup trophy in what could be his final major tournament with Argentina, capping off an incredible career that could be the greatest in football history. The shirts up for sale were donned by Messi in two group stage matches, as well as the round of 16 game, quarterfinals, semi-finals and even in the finals against France – where he netted twice excluding a third in the penalty shootout to help his nation clinch the trophy.