The shirt Diego Maradona wore when scoring the “Hand of God” goal and the subsequent “Goal of the Century” during Argentina’s win over England in the 1986 World Cup currently stands as the most expensive soccer jersey publicly sold, going for $9.28 million in a 2022 auction.Given the explosion of the collectibles and memorabilia market in the last couple of years, how much would someone pay for the actual ball Maradona used to score maybe the two most famous goals in the history of the sport?$10 million.At least that’s what Heritage Auctions estimates the value for the deflating white and black “Official World Cup Ball 1986” photo-matched to both Maradona’s “Hand of God” and “Goal of the Century” scores on June 22, 1986. This ball will hit the auction block at Heritage starting at the end of the month, ending the weekend of August 21-23.“When it came in, I worked at Heritage for 20 years and there’s been a lot of items that when they arrived, they just shut down the whole department. This is on that list,” Heritage production manager Mike Provenzale said. “It’s an item so iconic, even people who don’t know anything about soccer or know the event can realize the value behind the ball. Having it photo matched to both goals is just the cherry on top.”This isn’t the first time it’s been put up for auction in recent memory, though.The ball received a final bid of $2.04 million through Goldin in February 2023, but it didn’t sell because it failed to reach an unlisted reserve price (a minimum value set by the seller that bidding needs to reach in order for the sale to be authorized). This Heritage auction for the ball will also have an “undisclosed reserve that Heritage feels is modest based on the importance of the item.” That hasn’t stopped Heritage from believing the “Hand of God” ball should reach 10 figures.