Michael Jordan’s record stands, Diego Maradona also remains ahead
Set of six T-shirts, in which Lionel Messi played in the winning game Argentina national team 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was sold at Sotheby’s for $7.803 million.
Thus, this lot became a record for the final cost among all the things of an Argentine football player ever sold at auction.
Analysts predicted that Messi could take aim at the absolute record held by Michael Jordan. A “His Airness” jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million in 2022. This forecast did not come true.
The newly sold Messi T-shirts took an honorable third place on the conditional pedestal of similar lots in history. The aforementioned Jordan jersey was slightly less expensive than Diego Maradona’s 1986 World Cup jersey, codenamed “Hand of God,” sold in May last year for $9.28 million.
According to Forbes, Messi is the second highest paid athlete in the world with a net worth of $130 million. In addition, Lionel is the highest paid MLS player with an annual salary of 20.4 million.
On October 30, Messi won the most prestigious individual award in world football, the Ballon d’Or, for the eighth time. In the voting, he was 105 points ahead of Erling Haaland and 192 points ahead of Kylian Mbappe.
Later, 36-year-old Messi was named the best player of the season at Inter Miami. Let us remember that he moved to this club in the summer of 2023, played 14 matches in all competitions, scored 11 goals and gave five assists. His debut broke television records in the United States, and sales of the Florida club’s jerseys increased exponentially.
Having won the League Cup with his new club, Lionel became the most titled football player in history.
In December, Messi was also named Time magazine’s Athlete of the Year.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
