Almost a year after they were stolen at a charity auction, gloves worn by Dino Zoff at the 1982 World Cup have turned up in a street market in Rome.
On February 2 of last year, a charity auction was held at the Hilton Airport hotel in Fiumicino, where a pair of Uhlsport model 040 gloves were exhibited as part of a larger Azzurri collection. The gloves were the ones worn by Zoff during Italy’s successful 1982 World Cup campaign.
Despite the cameras and private security around the hotel, the gloves were stolen from a mannequin dedicated to the former Italy goalkeeper, and they completely disappeared. Authorities scoured far and wide for the small pieces of Azzurri history, but their efforts proved fruitless.
As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Zoff’s now-infamous gloves were discovered today among the stalls of the Porta Portese street market in Rome, found on an old sheet on the floor alongside various other random items.
They have now been returned to the Azzurri collection and will be on show at the ‘Tell me how football was’ event at the Museo del Mare in Genoa next month.
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