"The whole thing feels like it could only happen in the '80s." Filmmaker Phidel McCabe isn't wrong. Argentina's iconic blue shirt — the one Maradona wore when he punched one in with his hand and dribbled through half of England's team — may have been stitched together by market traders in Mexico City days before the match.
That shirt sold at auction for $9.28 million. Its origin story is worth nearly as much.
Six days, a street market, and glittery numbers
McCabe's documentary, El Diez: Made in Tepito, traces the six days between Argentina's group match against Uruguay in Puebla and the quarter-final against England at the Azteca on June 22, 1986. After swapping shirts with Uruguay and needing blue again, Argentina had a problem. Former goalkeeper Hector Miguel Zelada — a Club America player who knew Mexico City — pointed the team toward Tepito, the sprawling market district where, as McCabe puts it, "you can find literally anything."
What they found were replacements. Workers stitched on Argentina's badges by hand. American football numbers were ironed on — which explains why the digits on Maradona's shirt have that distinctive glittery finish. Not a kit room. Not a sponsor. A market stall, two days before one of football's most replicated images was created.
Even in Mexico City, people aren't sure the story is true. McCabe admits that uncertainty is exactly what pulled him in.
More than a Maradona story
The documentary is deliberate about shifting the lens away from Maradona himself and toward the people whose labour quietly shaped the moment. Zapotec artist Ana Xhopa painted a mural on Calle República de Argentina in central Mexico City to mark the 40th anniversary of the match — and specifically to make the merchants visible.
"It's not only FIFA, it's also local commerce; it's us Mexicans," she said.
That's a pointed line. As the 2026 World Cup looms with Mexico as a co-host, the feeling on the streets — as McCabe notes — is that the tournament increasingly belongs to corporations and broadcast deals, not to the communities that actually host it. A $9.28 million auction price for a shirt that may have cost a few pesos in a market square captures that tension better than any press release could.
The badge, the glitter, the hand of God — and maybe, a Tepito tailor who never knew what they were making.
