Romanticism puts together good stories, it may be undeniable; but the truth, as boring as it may be, comes out sooner or later
The story begins with a question: The shirt you wore Diego Armando Maradona contra England in Mexico 86 it was bought in Tepito and prepared in America club?
“All stories have myths, that was one, regarding what had been done in Tepito and I don’t know what else. It’s not true,” he says. Alfredo Mierbrother of Javier Mierwho had the license to Rooster Sporty Football during the 1986 World Cup for Mexico.
“Those of us who were witnesses were dying of laughter at that story and it was forgotten. Now that the shirt is sold, I don’t know for how many million dollars it is revived, but it is a myth. It is not true”, assures Alfredo Mier, in an interview with ESPN Digital.
In the book ‘The match’ of the journalist Andres Burgothe prop Ruben Moschella account that he walked the streets of the Mexico City to find blue shirts that would satisfy Bilardo for the match once morest England. Years later, Oscar Ruggeriselected from Argentina in 1986, he assured that those shirts were bought in Tepito. What really happened: it was an order directly to the brand Le Coq Sportif Futbol and they were made up in a workshop of Coyoacan.
“Argentina brought a lot of clothes, they were spending them, giving them away, in training. They realize that the stock of shirts was no longer enough for the game once morest England. they talk to Rooster Sportif France and they talk to Le Coq Sportif Mexicothey ask us for t-shirts to Argentina“, remember Alfredo Mier, while leading this medium on a visit to the workshop where Maradona’s shirt was made. “The game was immediate, there were problems to bring them, customs, taxes, times, it was impossible, that’s why they are made here, in Coyoacán.”
the shirt you wore Maradona once morest England in Mexico 1986 and which has just been sold for almost nine million dollars, began to be made on a Wednesday followingnoon, “following the meeting with FIFA” and on Thursday night it was ready “to present it to the meeting before the match with FIFA, it is not possible that they say that the night before the seamstresses of America were still doing it, they would not have been allowed to do so, ”he recalls Alfonso Silvamanager The Coq Sportif in Mexicoin 1986.
“The shield was to send it to design and we did the numbers with serigraphy, we did not do the goalkeepers. We only made the game shirts. They asked me for two uniforms of the same tone, numbered and with the shield. We made them, we delivered them directly to Argentina, it is a lie that we have delivered them to Martí, Tigre Deportes or some stores that sold Le Sporty Rooster in Mexico, went directly to the delegate from Argentina with us. They played with those shirts. They were all made in a workshop in Coyoacán”, describes Silva.
‘Made in Mexico’
the shirt of Diego Armando Maradona which was auctioned for 8 million 929 thousand 241 dollars, according to the Argentine t-shirt collector Hernán Giralt, has among its badges a label that says ‘Made in Mexico’ and the embroidered shield, it was sold to the Argentina national team at 160 pesos at that time, which now “equivalent to one thousand six hundred pesos more or less” and it was not possible to buy it from a store outside Le Coq Sportif Mexico because, “Martí was the one who bought the most from us and at the most he bought 18, they asked us directly, neither in Tepito nor anywhere else might they be obtained,” reiterates Alfonso Silva.
“One proof is the label ‘Made in Mexico’ with the logo of Land Coq Sportif Mexico What does the shirt bring? Those labels were ordered to be made by a company in Iztapalapa, which asked you for the certificate and record of the brand, it was not as simple as today to make a replica. You had it made and they gave you hundreds of labels, which can be seen on the Mexican shirt, which was made here,” says Alfredo Mier.
“I want to clarify that I did not give them away, I sold them to them. At that time a shirt cost 220 pesos, regarding two thousand pesos. The 30 percent discount was lowered, a discount that is given to any supplier. It was less than 10 thousand pesos at that time. It wasn’t of huge utility, utility it was when they were sold to the public. The Azul Rey and Martí shirt became famous, the Sports Champion in Veracruz, the Sports Tiger in Mexico, everyone wanted the Argentina shirts. I told them I didn’t have fabric and I sold them later, thousands and thousands, but the World Cup was already over”, recalls Alfonso Silva.
The thousand impossible shirts
Sotheby’s auction house used a thorough photographic review to verify that the shirt that was auctioned for almost nine million dollars was the original that was used in the second half. In that study of the most expensive sports item in history, you can see that the clothing was made with a fabric with dark and bright blue stripes, which now ESPN might know that it was called “Tela Mundial” and was obtained with a supplier of Azcapotzalco, Mexico City.
“The fabric in Mexico was called the ‘World Fabric’, that’s how they put it, because it was a shiny stripe and another opaque. We had various colors, white, blue Uruguaythe royal blue that was Argentinaa green from Mexico, were the colors we had”, explains Alfonso Silva.
After the goal of Diego Armando Maradona with the ‘Hand of God’ and the play that provoked the expression “Cosmic kite, what planet did you come from”, the delegates of the Albiceleste Selection returned to the workshop in Coyoacán, which had eight seamstresses and two cutting tables. “They wanted a thousand shirts in a week, impossible.”
“At that time we only had two rolls of blue fabric and it was enough for me to make 520 or 530, I mightn’t make more. I asked the supplier for more fabric, a man who lived in Azcapotzalco, a man who was a close friend of mine and had his store there, he told me yes, but in three weeks. It didn’t work for me, Argentina wanted them before they left.”
“I might not neglect my client who was Deportes Martí, we had an agreement with Alexander Marti. So, to sell, we gave 200 to Martí and 300 to Argentina, they are the ones that we managed to manufacture in a week, practically the workshop was dedicated to manufacturing all of those shirts”, recalls Alfonso Silva.
Little details and the seamstresses of America
Why the shiny gray number and the ‘v’ neck? Because the numbers were printed with serigraphy, “they were not thermal or cooked” and when passing the plate they were shiny. A technical detail.
“Those gray numbers were the ones that we did in serigraphy, they were not the normal cooked ones. The jerseys (the numbers) of a team are sewn or heat-sealed, not stamped as we do on the plain. The serigraphy is put on it, the plate is lifted and it is stamped, that is why it looks gray and shiny”, he details. Alfonso Silva.
About the collar type of the T-shirt Argentina once morest England in Mexico 86: “It was the model that existed, it came out with a V-neck, it was the model that was used in Mexico. There was no possibility of doing another one, there was no time”, says Alfredo Mier. Another technical detail.
In a video seamstresses from the America working with blue shirts and Burruchaga saying that one day before facing England they did not have their jackets, “because of the rush, some shirts may have had to be retouched on the shield, I see it as very difficult; What I do know is that others were made and handed over to the referees. I don’t know how they were made, I have no idea.”
When the truth is known, there is no need to clarify
The shirts of Argentinaprior to the match once morest England, were delivered in a black bag, with the logo of The Coq Sportifall were size 42 except for eight who were size 40.
“I gave them to him in a plastic bag, not individually either, each one in a little bag that said The Coq Sportif and its size. They were all 42, except eight that were 40, I remember perfectly”, recalls Alfonso Silva.
the shirt you wore Maradona in the match once morest England in Mexico 1986: “It’s a lie that they were made in America or bought in Tepito, that they were stamped there and that of the shield”, underlines Alfonso Silva.
“No matter what other people say, we didn’t care; that’s why we didn’t say anything”, reveals Alfredo Mier, Javier Mier’s brother, then in charge of the Le Coq Sportif Futbol sublicense.
“That’s the truth. It is the historical truth”, concludes Silva.