Lionel Messi jersey at the 2022 FIFA World Cup final in Qatar is set to be auctioned alongside other jerseys which he wore at the tournament.
It will reportedly be sold for above £8 million, a staggering amount by any estimation.
6 tops from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be auctioned as a set by Sotheby’s in New York, with a percentage of the money made from the sales to be given to charity.
The shirts are from the first 45 of the World Cup final against France, the semi-final against Croatia, the quarter-final against the Netherlands, and the round-of-16 encounter against Australia.
Additionally, 2 of the 3 shirts from 3 group games will also be auctioned, and as aforementioned it will be going for around £8 million.
That amount will be a record for a “sports memorabilia collection”, with the current record for sports memorabilia being Micheal Jordan’s Chicago Bulls jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals first game.
The sport memorabilia was auctioned for about £8.1 million in September 2022 at Sotheby’s New York.
Let’s move away from Sports briefly, and let’s look at the costliest music memorabilia.
It is the late American musician Kurt Cobain’s guitar that he used during an MTV Unplugged performance in 1993 – 30 years ago.
Late Cobain made use of it just a month before his death, and it was sold for £4.2 million in 2020.
Most expensive football shirts auctioned
In football, the most expensive football shirts sold at auction currently are;
Diego Armando Maradona’s “Hand of God” shirt, a shirt he wore during the encounter involving England and Argentina at the 1986 World Cup. It was sold for about £7.1 million.
It is closely followed by that of the legendary Pele, his 1970 World Cup final Brazil shirt against Italy. The shirt was sold for about £157, 750.
Sir Geoff Hurst’s 1966 World Cup final shirt for England against West Germany also comes behind those two.
For Lionel Messi, the highest amount his jersey has been auctioned for is £360,000 and it is his 2017 Barcelona El Clasico kit, where he scored a late winner against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Lionel Messi scored twice during the 2022 FIFA World Cup final against France, with Argentina playing out a 3-3 in regulation time.
However, Les Blues lost composure during the penalty shoot-out and Lionel Scaloni’s side ultimately recorded a 4-2 victory.
Lionel Messi on his World Cup jersey being auctioned
Messi also shared to his socials that he will be auctioning 6 of his World Cup shirts and the proceeds will be handed to the Barcelona Children’s Hospital to cater for the children battling rare diseases.
The 36-year-old wrote: “Six World Cup shirts. One auction. Today, my friends at AC Momento are announcing an auction at Sotheby’s for six shirts I wore during the World Cup in Qatar, including my shirt from the Final.
He also urged everyone to place their bids online at Sotheby’s from the 30th of November, 2023 to the 14th of December 2023.
Lionel Messi added: “Place your bids online at Sotheby’s from 30 November – 14 December.
“A portion of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the UNICAS Project, led by Sant Joan de Déu (SJD) Barcelona Children’s Hospital to meet the needs of children suffering from rare diseases.
