Peter Shilton has declared the shirt Diego Maradona scored his notorious 'Hand of God' goal in would have been "ripped up into a thousand pieces" if he had known it was in the England dressing room.
Maradona infamously prodded the ball beyond Shilton with his outstretched arm to set Argentina on course for the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup. Minutes later, he scored the so-called 'Goal of the Century' after leaving numerous Three Lions players in his wake with a breathtaking run.
Following the full-time whistle, England midfielder Steve Hodge swapped shirts with Maradona and he was the proud owner of the bright blue jersey for many decades. It was on display in the National Football Museum in Manchester before Hodge decided to sell it via an auction at Sotheby's.
Bidding was open from 20 April until 4 May and the winning offer was worth a mammoth £7,142,000, making the shirt the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever auctioned. However, things could have panned out very differently for Hodge if his teammates had known he exchanged pleasantries with Maradona moments after England's agonising - and controversial - defeat.
That is because Shilton insists the Three Lions squad would not have let the shirt leave the dressing room as it would have been torn apart, such was their anger at the manner of their World Cup exit. "I wouldn't even use it around the house, not even to clean the dishes in my bungalow," the former goalkeeper told The Sun of Maradona's shirt.
"If myself and a few of the other players had known Hodgey had his shirt in the dressing room then it wouldn't have made it out. In the heat of the game, it would have been ripped up into a thousand pieces - and I bet Hodgey is happy now we didn't do that.
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"He knew what he was doing when he didn't tell us he had it. We were very angry, it's just as well we didn't. I'm just glad one Englishman has got something out of the game."
The buyer of the shirt remains anonymous but it does not appear it will be returning to its homeland, despite the hopes of the Argentine Football Association. This has given Shilton a certain degree of schadenfreude as he added: "We've had the last laugh. It's poetic justice for being cheated out of that World Cup."
Maradona would go on to inspire Argentina to glory at the 1986 World Cup while England have not lifted football's greatest honour since 1966.
