05/07/2024 10:29 a.m.
Another auction is coming for a relic that belonged to Diego Armando Maradona. This time it will be the Ballon d’Or he received in 1986 as the best soccer player in the World Cup in Mexico. That trophy was stolen by the Italian mafia in 1989 and found in 2016. As the first version was that it had been melted to sell the gold, it took eight years of studies and tests until its authenticity was verified. And this June 2 the auction will begin where the house in charge of the sale It hopes to raise around 15 million euros.
The incredible story of the trophy
In 1986, after winning the World Cup with the Argentine National Team, Maradona was chosen as the best player of the World Cup and was awarded the Ballon d’Or of Adidas, in a ceremony held by France Football in November 1986 at the Lido in Paris. There, Gary Lineker received the Golden Boot for being the tournament’s top scorer. And Igor Belanov, who played for Dinamo kyiv, won the Ballon d’Or for best player of the year since at that time the award was only for European footballers.
Maradona received the Ballon d’Or for being the best in the 86 World Cup in Mexico.
Diego chose the Banco della Provincia of Naples to store his trophy along with a collection of watches, which were his weakness, and other personal jewelry. But on October 26, 1989, the Italian mafia, more precisely the clan of Giuseppe Misso, carried out a shocking assault on the bank and among the multimillion-dollar stolen loot were the belongings of the Argentine player. The story goes that Maradona contacted the bosses of the Neapolitan camorra to ask for the return of his Ballon d’Or but he was only able to recover some watches and valuable objects.
Salvatore Lo Russo, boss of the Naples mafia, said years later during interrogation for a drug trafficking trial that the Ball could not be recovered because when, at Diego’s request, he went to arrange its return, the thieves had already melted it down. sell it later as gold bars. Although there was also another version: that the trophy had been lost in a poker game.
The thing is that in January 2016, Abdelhamid B, a Franco-Argentine and former gallery owner, announced that he had found the Ballon d’Or won by Maradona in ’86. However, only on April 2, the Aguttes auction house, in Paris, managed to verify that the trophy was authentic. And this Tuesday he announced that On June 6 it will be auctioned.
The characteristics of the trophy
The auction house, in his web page, displays the prize and tells some details. For example, it is made of golden copper alloy with black inclusions that say “Aztec”, the name of the ball used during the 86 World Cup.
The Ballon d’Or won by Maradona in Mexico 86 that will be auctioned in France.
As for measurements, it reports that it has a height of 28 centimeters, a diameter of 15.8 cm and that it weighs 4 kilos. In addition to citing some details such as traces of rubbing, scratches and the lack of the identification plate.
The trophy will be displayed to the public the days before the start of the auction. Who will take it?
