Izuchukwu OkosiSix of Lionel Messi’s shirts worn during the 2022 World Cup sold for a combined $7.8 million (£6.1 million) on Thursday at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
Converted to local currency, it’s about N6,203,992,800.00 Nigerian Naira.
Former Barcelona and PSG star Messi captained Argentina to victory at the tournament with his country beating France on penalties in the final.
The six jerseys sold on Thursday were from the first half of the final, semi-final, quarter-final, last-16 tie and two group games.
The record for a game-worn football shirt is Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ jersey, which sold for £7.1 million in 2022.
Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, became the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of a single tournament.
He played in all seven of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup matches, but only two of the three shirts Messi wore during the group stage will be auctioned, after Heart of Midlothian’s Australia international Cammy Devlin swapped shirts with the former Barcelona forward during the tournament.
Sotheby’s said: “A portion of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to Unicas Project, led by Sant Joan de Deu Barcelona Children’s Hospital with the support of the Leo Messi Foundation, to meet the needs of children suffering from rare diseases.”
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
Follow Us