Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi and More: Top 5 Highest Selling Jerseys of All Time

If they want it, they’ll get it – that’s how sports memorabilia collectors live. Money is no object when it comes possessing items touched by the greatest athletes. If it’s attached to a historic moment in time, it gets even better. Argentinian soccer superstar, Lionel Messi is now part of an elite club of sports icons with highly valued memorabilia. He felt a little short of Michael Jordan but it’s no small feat still.

Like with everything about His Airness, the value of his memorabilia is in the stratosphere. Make it game-worn, it stands undefeated. So we count down the highest bids any sports jerseys have ever won. Spoiler Alert: the NBA stars are in the lead.

5. Babe Ruth’s 1928-30 jersey

LeBron James‘ 2013 NBA finals jersey sold for a cool $3.6 million, but it got pushed out of top 5 among the highest bids non-sports cards memorabilia have earned. Instead, the new fifth spot goes to baseball’s greatest slugger, Babe Ruth.

His New York Yankees road jersey he wore at games from 1920 to 1930 sold for a record $5,64 million in 2019. Babe Ruth’s jersey used to be in the top 3. The 2023 auctions of Messi’s and Kobe Bryant’s jerseys changed the game.

4. Kobe Bryant’s MVP season jersey

In 2023, Kobe Bryant’s jersey from his lone MVP season in 2007-08 sold for for $5.8 million.

Sotheby’s New York sold the no.24 jersey Bryant wore in five preseason games, 14 regular season games, and six playoff games. Sotheby’s said Bryant scored a total of 645 points in that jersey. The same uniform features in multiple imagery that honor the late Lakers icon.

3. Lionel Messi’s 2022 World Cup jerseys

The latest addition to this club is the Argentine soccer star. A set of six of the seven striped blue and white jerseys Messi wore in the first half of the 2022 World Cup matches sold for $7.803 million on December 14.

One of those jerseys he wore in the final match, while the seventh jersey was probably traded to the opponents.

Sotheby’s hoped Messi’s jersey would’ve come closer to the top 2. But it did become the highest-selling Messi item so far. Another Argentine soccer star maintains his second spot unbeaten.

2. Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ 1986 jersey

Diego Maradona was synonymous with soccer and it was the 1986 World Cup that defined him. In a game fraught with tension due to strained international conflict, Maradona scored the game-winning goal.

It was controversial as the world debated if he used his hand before referees ruled the goal was legal. He famously replied, that was the “hand of God.”

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God’s hand figuratively struck the gavel when that jersey sold for $9.28 million in 2022. Only a million short of the NBA superstar who remains at the top of this list.

1. Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals jersey

In 1998, Michael Jordan won his final NBA title, sealing two three-peats to his name. 25 years later, the jersey from Game 1 of the best of seven series against Utah Jazz sold for $10.091 million.

According to Sotheby’s, the rarity of Jordan’s jerseys and especially from his final championship run drive up the price. The most fans with less than $10 million to spare can get of this jersey is seeing Jordan in it on The Last Dance.

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