If a cartoon picture of an Ape can sell for millions under a fake genre called NFT, why can’t a used soccer ball from the World Cup do the same? Well, this is the Hand of God ball … if you don’t know Diego Maradona, let me give you the cliff notes:

A drug addict who was pound for pound the greatest Footballer of all time, so what if he did lines at half-time, the rules were different back then. Standing tall at 5’4, this man was a legend. RIP.

The ball Diego Maradona punched into the net for his infamous Hand of God goal is set to make the referee who missed the call up to £3 million (GBP) at auction.

Maradona scored possibly the most controversial goal in football history to help Argentina knock England out of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser failed to spot Maradona’s blatant handball and awarded a goal to help set Argentina on their way to winning the tournament.

Now 36 years later, he is set to make a fortune from his huge error as the match ball from the World Cup quarter-final is sold at auction next month. UK-based Graham Budd Auctions expects bids of between £2.5 million and £3 million when the ball – used throughout the match in Argentina’s 2-1 win – goes under the hammer.

Bin Nasser says he wants to share “part of international football history” and still maintains he did not see Maradona’s handball. Maradona later claimed the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”

Bin Nasser says he checked with his linesman after Maradona dubiously beat England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to the ball – but did not get any indication from him there was anything wrong with the notorious goal. He said: “This ball is part of international football history – it feels like the right time to be sharing it with the world.”

The live auction will be streamed online on November 16, with prospective buyers able to register and bid online from October 28. Congrats to the person who wastes $3M on this Play-It-Again-Sports item. We have a pump you can borrow.