World Cup memorabilia is a big draw for Qatari football fans. Esmael, who used to play for the public youth teams in Qatar. Thought the competition was a great way for them to show the world what they could do. Doha’s football fans have been flocking to watch two Qatari brothers exhibit World Cup memorabilia. Some of the more obscure items include shirts worn by Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others as well as medals and balls.
Esmael and Khalid Almere’s collection of priceless soccer memorabilia include Diego Maradona’s USA 94 World Cup ID. In addition to a shirt handed to Netherlands winger Arjen Robben for 2010 final in South Africa. When I was a kid in the United States, I used to collect cards and stickers and trade them with other kids at school. “My love of collecting sports memorabilia has never left me,” Esmael told Reuters during his explanation of how the collection came to be.
Esmael, a former member of Qatar’s youth national teams, thought the tournament was the ideal opportunity for their collections to be displayed in front of the entire world. “With my brother Khalid, who is also an avid collector of World Cup memorabilia, I organized a football collectibles exhibition at the Katara cultural village on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar.” An England supporter named Simon Ebrington gave the exhibits his full attention.
It’s an amazing quantity of stuff, he told Reuters, adding, “I noticed some images of my all-time favorite football player, Roberto Carlos, over there.” Other relics are kept in glass cases and are on display behind glass panels on the walls of Building 18 in the Katara cultural center. Examples include a signed promotional ball for the 2002 World Cup and a staff pass for the championship game at Wembley Stadium in 1966.
Ronaldo, Portugal’s most famous number 7, is competing in his fifth World Cup in the number 7. However, when he took part in his first tournament in 2006, he wore number 17. In their exhibition, the Almeer brothers have one of Ronaldo’s shirts from the third-place playoff against Germany.
Esmael declares, “I now have 150 match-worn shirts, and I concentrate primarily on World Cup and European Championship shirts.” In addition, he asserts that the shirt of former Yugoslav striker Davor Suker is his favorite.
The fact that an unidentified buyer paid 7.14 million pounds for Maradona’s 1986 World Cup “Hand of God” shirt shows that rare items can be extremely valuable and that collectors should be wary of fakes on the market. According to expert Barry Rojack of the Irish Sports Museum, “Alan Ball’s shirt from the 1966 World Cup final just sold at auction for 130,000 pounds this morning.”
In 2022, I anticipate that a winning shirt from Argentina, England, or Brazil will cost anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 pounds.” A World Cup medal from 1978, according to Esmael, is their most prized possession, and the majority of his shirts are purchased from a British company. A
t the beginning of the exhibition, a visitor by the name of Alex Tobin informed the collector that he had worn a very special Australian shirt while playing center-back for Australia in a match against Sweden in 1996. This revelation shocked Esmael. Esmael exclaimed incredulously, “I didn’t even know when I met him, he’s such a humble person.” When people from all over the world came to our exhibition.