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    Bobby Moore’s 1966 World Cup winner’s shirt goes MISSING from his ex-wife’s attic – then mystery ‘owner’ puts it on sale

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    ENGLAND legend Bobby Moore’s World Cup winner’s shirt has gone missing, his stunned ex-wife revealed last night.  Bobby sported the iconic red shirt when he hoisted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley in 1966 and first wife Tina believed it was safely mothballed in her attic.
    Bobby Moore’s 1966 World Cup shirt has gone missingCredit: Getty
    Bobby’s wife of 24 years, Tina, said : ‘I would really love to get that shirt back where it belongs – with me’Credit: Rex
    It was thought to be in his first wife Tina’s atticCredit: Getty Images – Getty
    But the jersey worth millions has now been offered for auction by a private buyer who refuses to be identified.
    Its mysterious appearance has baffled the late soccer great’s loved ones and forced them to issue an urgent appeal for its return.
    Wife of 24 years Tina told The Daily Mail: “I would really love to get that shirt back where it belongs – with me, with my family, and with the nation, for everyone to have a chance to look at it and marvel at Bobby’s achievement.”
    Tina last saw the shirt decades ago in the 1970s and 1980s when it was kept folded in a leather bag in the attic of the house Tina and Bobby shared in Chigwell, Essex.
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    Their daughter Roberta remembers seeing it when they went up into the attic to fetch Christmas decorations.
    When Moore was dying of cancer in 1992, his daughter brought his cherished trophies, medals and caps to his home so he could hold them for a final time.
    But by then the famous red shirt was missing – along with an equally cherished yellow Brazil shirt he swapped with Pele at the 1970 World Cup.
    Tina spent years that followed attempting to track down the shirts without success – until they received a call from the FA two years ago confirming the 1966 shirt had been unearthed.
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    The FA caller stunned the family by declaring it was in the hands of a private buyer.
    There is no suggestion of impropriety by the current holder – but the family want answers as to how the shirt came into his possession.
    Tina’s daughter Roberta, 58, said: “It was a huge shock and at first, totally baffling.

    Do you know who has Bobby’s shirt or have information on where it might be? Call The Sun’s tip line on 02077824100, message us on WhatsApp on 07423720250 or email exclusive@the-sun.co.uk

    “The shirt belongs to my mother and she had been looking for it for years. Now out of the blue, they were telling us about some private buyer, and it had been ‘found’?”
    Roberta added: “It was all very strange. The information was vague. The shirt had been ‘found at a general auction of an unknown deceased person’.
    “It was hard to comprehend – how does the shirt go from being tucked in a bag in my mother’s attic to an auction of a deceased person?”
    Bobby’s family have suffered further frustration because the holder of the shirt is insisting on remaining anonymous and is said to have been “spooked” by their inquiries.
    The West Ham and England soccer great divorced Tina in 1986 and remarried Stephanie Parlane in 1991 shortly before his death from cancer in 1993.
    Tina, 79, is adamant that the shirt belongs to her after being left to her with football memorabilia to her when they split.
    She said: “If there is somebody out there who has the shirt, I appeal for them to come to us, and explain how they came about it.
    “I’m sure it’s been done in very good faith, but I don’t think the people or this person are aware of what’s happened.
    “I would just love to be able to talk to them and find out. But more than anything, I just want to get back the shirt which Bobby gave to me and entrusted to me. I owe it to him and the family.”
    An FA spokesman said: “Bobby Moore is an England hero. It would be wonderful if there was a way of finding his historic World Cup winning shirt and putting it on display for the nation.”
    It comes after the shirt worn by Diego Maradona during his iconic ‘Hand of God’ goal sold for a staggering £7million at auction last year.
    The legendary No10 shirt was bought by an anonymous fan after a month-long bidding battle.
    Likewise, one footie fanatic revealed that he has spent thousands on an epic collection of over 500 classic kits.
    Sadly, not all kits make their way to collections or the attics of ex players.

    For example, a rare Celtic shirt was stolen from the National Football Museum in February 2020,
    Thankfully, though, the jersey once warn by Charlie Nicholas was returned anonymously by post just a month later.
    It has been put up for auction by an anonymous private buyerCredit: PA:Press Association
    The Brazil shirt Bobby swapped with Pele in the 1970 World Cup also went missingCredit: Getty More

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      Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ Jersey Sells for $9.3 Million

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      The shirt worn by the Argentine soccer star when he scored two fabled goals, one of which he attributed to divine aid, fetched what is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a sports item.During the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, the English soccer player Steve Hodge looped a ball to his goalie that was intercepted by the Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, enabling Maradona to score one of the most notorious goals against Hodge’s team.It would become one of the most talked-about goals in professional soccer: In a fast-moving sequence, Maradona got away with using his left hand to palm the ball, and he later invoked “the hand of God” to explain what had occurred.In the stadium tunnel after Argentina won, 2-1, Hodge asked Maradona to exchange jerseys.Now, the victor of the exchange seems debatable. Maradona advanced to the finals and won, but Hodge received a shirt that, dried sweat and all, he just sold for nearly $9.3 million at an auction held by Sotheby’s — believed to the highest price ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia.Sotheby’s announced the sale on Wednesday on Twitter. It did not specify the buyer. In a news release, Sotheby’s quoted Hodge calling it a “pleasure” to have exhibited the shirt for the last 20 years at the National Football Museum in Manchester, England.He added, “The Hand of God shirt has deep cultural meaning to the football world, the people of Argentina, and the people of England and I’m certain that the new owner will have immense pride in owning the world’s most iconic football shirt.”Leila Dunbar, an appraiser of pop culture merchandise, said that the sale was emblematic of the recent increase in the value of sports memorabilia. “Since 2020,’’ she said, “this latest ascension is like nothing I have ever seen in more than three decades in the business.”Maradona, generally considered along with Pelé among the best-ever soccer players, was known for scrappiness and sudden bursts of virtuosity. Both those characteristics were epitomized by his play in the second half of that quarterfinal match against England, which took place in Mexico City.Diego Maradona during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Argentina and England in Mexico City on June 22, 1986.Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesAfter the left-hand infraction, Maradona immediately began to celebrate, before English players had a chance to explode at the referees.Four minutes later, Maradona scored what soccer fans consecrated in a vote held by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, as the “World Cup Goal of the Century.” Starting in his team’s own half of the field, dribbling backward momentarily, sprinting one moment and in another slowing to a prance, he traveled 70 yards, circumvented five English players, then blew past the team’s goalie and — in a nanosecond before tumbling over — kicked in the winning goal.The Falklands War, which ended in a British defeat of Argentina, gave the match a larger symbolic dimension.“This was revenge,” Maradona wrote in his autobiography, “I Am Diego” (2000). “It was something bigger than us: We were defending our flag.”The authenticity of the jersey was questioned a few weeks beforehand, when Maradona’s eldest daughter, Dalma Maradona, told Agence France-Presse that her father had given Hodge the jersey he had worn during the match’s relatively uneventful first half.A spokeswoman for Sotheby’s told AFP that the auction house had undertaken “extensive diligence and scientific research” to authenticate the jersey’s use during the game’s climactic moments. Written accounts by both Maradona and Hodge confirm an exchange of jerseys after the game. (In an email, a Sotheby’s spokesman assured that the jersey had not been washed since then.)Rich Mueller, the founder and editor of Sports Collectors Daily, a website devoted to the sports memorabilia industry, said the sale represented the highest price he had ever heard anyone paying for memorabilia, in an auction or a private sale.The most recent record-setting sports items sold at auction have included a Babe Ruth jersey, which sold for $5.6 million in June 2019, and a document that laid out the founding principles of the modern Olympics, which sold for $8.8 million in December 2019.To illustrate the way the prices for sports memorabilia have skyrocketed, Ms. Dunbar, the appraiser, pointed out that in 2017, a Jackie Robinson jersey from 1947, his rookie season, sold for around $2 million, and last year, a 1950 Robinson jersey sold for more than twice as much — around $4.2 million. Ms. Dunbar estimated that a Robinson jersey that went on sale could now bring $10 million to $20 million.“People are realizing these items can be appreciated like a work of art,” Brahm Wachter, the head of streetwear and modern collectibles at Sotheby’s, said. “I’ve wanted to sell the shirt for a long time, perhaps the longest of any item I’ve actually had the privilege of selling.” More