The shirt that football legend Diego Maradona wore in the 1986 World Cup final has been returned to Argentina by his German opponent on the day, Lothar Matthaus.
The midfielder swapped shirts with Maradona at half-time during the show-piece match in Mexico.
During the game, Maradona was heavily marshalled by Matthaus, but Argentina’s talisman managed to unlock the West Germany defence with a superb pass in the 86th minute to set up Jorge Burruchaga, who scored the winner.
In a special ceremony at the Argentinian Embassy in Madrid, Matthaus returned the historic shirt, and it will be displayed at a new football museum in the Spanish capital.
“It was always a great honour to play against him,” Matthaus said of the late Maradona.
“As a player and a person, he was always someone very important to me. He will always be in our hearts.”
The pair would go on to face each other and exchange shirts again during the Italia 90 World Cup final, which West Germany won.
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That shirt is held in a museum in Germany, Matthaus said.
England fans will remember the 1986 World Cup for the Three Lions’ run to the quarter-final, which saw Bobby Robson’s side knocked out by Argentina after a 2-1 loss.
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Maradona scored two goals midway through the second-half, including the controversial Hand of God goal.
The shirt he wore in that match at the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City was sold for more than $9m (£7.6m) in an online auction at Sotheby’s in May – the highest price ever paid at an auction for a piece of sports memorabilia.
The football icon, who is among the greatest ever to play the game, died in November 2020 at the age of 60.
