Lionel Messi celebrates being crowned champion of the 2022 World Cup. (Photo: AFP/TTXVN)

On December 14, at the auction in New York (USA) organized by auction house Sotheby’s, a collection of 6 shirts worn by famous player Lionel Messi in 6 matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was paid for 7 USD. .8 million USD.

The collection includes the shirts Messi wore in the first half of the final, the semi-final against Croatia, the quarter-final against the Netherlands, the 1/8 round against Australia and two of the three group stage matches.

Sotheby’s said part of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the UNICAS Project at the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, with support from Leo Messi’s charity, to help children. suffer from rare diseases.

The identity of the buyer of Messi’s shirts has not yet been revealed.

At the unveiling ceremony, Sotheby’s head of Modern Collectibles Brahm Wachter emphasized that Messi’s historic Qatar World Cup shirts not only represent one of the most important moments in sporting history, which is reminiscent of the peak moment in the career of one of the best players in football history.

Messi is an important inspiration that brought Argentina to the final match at the 2022 World Cup, with 5 goals and 3 assists.

In the Final between Argentina and France, Messi directly scored two goals – including the penalty kick that opened the score and initiated the situation that led to the other goal.

He also played in the first penalty shootout, giving his teammates more confidence to perform well in the next three rounds so Argentina won 4-2.

Up to now, the record for the most valuable football shirt belongs to the shirt the late great Diego Maradona wore in the 1986 World Cup Quarterfinals, when he scored the famous “Hand of God” goal.

In an auction also organized by Sotheby’s last year, an anonymous person spent 7.1 million pounds (about 9.3 million USD) to buy this shirt from former England midfielder Steve Hodge.