Messi’s World Cup Final shirt sells for $7.8 million...but still isn’t the most expensive shirt of all time?

The shirt Lionel Messi wore during the 2022 World Cup Final was auctioned, along with other match-worn jerseys from the tournament, on Thursday, 14th December.

Famous auction house, Southeby’s in New York listed the item, with some of the proceeds selling from any sales going to charity.

With the bidding deadline approaching there had only been three official bids with the highest being a relatively small $6.5 million according to The Daily Mail.

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With just minutes remaining, the winning bid of $7.8 million came in, blowing away the competition and making the shirts one of the most expensive pieces of sports memorabilia of all time. But what are the others?

One of the greatest sportsmen of all time tops the list with his game-worn shirt from game one of the 1998 NBA Finals series against the Utah Jazz selling for $10.1 million in 2022.

Another Argentinian footballer comes in second with Diego Maradona’s jersey from the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal selling for $9.28 million, also in 2022. Bizarrely, this shirt has a unique origin as team management decided to swap to a lighter fabric jersey for their quarterfinal matchup against England and sent their kit man across Mexico City to find a last-minute option!

Babe Ruth was a larger-than-life figure during a trying time in American history, rising to prominence during the 1920s with the New York Yankees. It is no surprise to see his jersey selling for $5.64 million when it was listed during a Hunt Auctions sales.

Before Maradona’s shirt sold for $9.28 million, the most expensive football shirt ever was relatively cheap in comparison. The record was held for nearly 20 years with Pele’s 1970 World Cup Final shirt selling for a mere $201,177 back in 2002.