A collection of 6 jerseys worn by Lionel Messi during the 2022 World Cup just sold for $7.8M including buyer’s premium at auction Thursday.
The sale, which was facilitated by Sotheby’s New York, featured 6 shirts worn by Messi during the 1st half of six of Argentina’s matches in Qatar, including their victory over France in the final. The other shirts were worn in the first half of 2 group stage matches, Argentina’s round of 16 win over Australia, their quarterfinal match with the Netherlands, and their 3-0 win over Croatia in the semi finals. The only jersey missing from the collection was the one from Argentina’s final group stage match vs. Poland.
The final $7.8M price tag represents the highest price point for sports memorabilia in 2023, and sets a new record for Messi worn memorabilia as well. The previous high water mark was $450K spent on a Barcelona jersey worn in the El Clasico match from 2017.
Although the sale set new highs for Messi worn collectibles, the final price point fell well short of expectations. Given that the lot included not just one, but six World Cup, game worn jerseys from one of the greatest players ever, the fact that it didn’t eclipse previous sales such as Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” jersey, was fairly disappointing. That piece of history sold for $9.28M back in May of 2022.
The sale also fell well short of the all time sports uniform record, which remains the $10.1M sale of Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 jersey.
Messi finished the 2022 World Cup with 7 goals and 3 assists, and was awarded the golden ball as the tournament’s most valuable player. The winner of auction has thus far chosen to remain anonymous.
Photo: Tasnim News Agency. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.