Хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэн дэх ховор нандин эд зүйлсийг хадгалдаг Габриэль Бустамантегийн 20,000 гаруй үзмэртэй цуглуулга Мексикийн Монтеррей хотын нэгэн нууцлаг хоргодох байранд байрладаг.
Габриэль Бустаманте 2019 онд Дорадос де Синалоа багийн дасгалжуулагчаар ажиллаж байсан Диего Марадонагийн талбайгаас хаясан тал тамхи болон түүний зүүж байсан нарны шилийг цуглуулгадаа нэмжээ. Тэрээр хөлбөмбөгийн түүхийг хойч үедээ үлдээх эрхэм зорилгынхоо хүрээнд Андрес Иньестагийн өмсгөл, Тони Кроосын Реал Мадрид дахь сүүлчийн тоглолтын оймс, тэр ч байтугай 1986 онд ФИФА-гийн ерөнхийлөгч Жоао Хавеланжын бичсэн нууц захидлыг хүртэл эзэмшдэг байна.
Түүний цуглуулгад Пеле, Марадона, Ламин Ямал, Лука Модрич нарын тоглолтын үеэр өмсөж байсан өмсгөлүүд болон 1990 оны ДАШТ-ий шигшээ тоглолтын шүүгч Эдгардо Кодесалын хэрэглэж байсан улаан, шар карт, шүгэл зэрэг олон үнэ цэнтэй эд зүйлс багтжээ. Бустаманте найман настайгаасаа тоглогчдын автомашиныг угааж хариуд нь өмсгөл авдаг байсан сонирхлоо хөгжүүлсээр өдгөө хөлбөмбөгийн түүхийг хадгалан үлдээх томоохон цуглуулагч болсон байна.
Тэрээр хөлбөмбөгийн өмсгөл бүр нь тухайн тоглогчийн тэрхүү тоглолтын дурсамж, сэтгэл хөдлөлийг шингээсэн байдаг тул үүнийг хадгалах нь өөрийнх нь хамгийн том хобби хэмээн онцолжээ. Бустаманте цуглуулгаа хүмүүст үзүүлж, түүх өгүүлэх дуртай бөгөөд Лотар Маттеусын 1990 оны Алтан бөмбөгийг гар хүрэх боломж олдсон нь түүний цуглуулагчийн замналын хамгийн оргил үе байсан гэв.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
If there is one item which sums up Gabriel Bustamante’s extraordinary dedication to collecting football memorabilia, it is a half-used Diego Maradona cigar.
Maradona had just lost a 2019 play-off final with the Mexican second-division side he was coaching at the time, Dorados de Sinaloa, when Bustamante spotted him smoking the cigar on his way out of the stadium. When Maradona threw what was left of it under the team bus, Bustamante got down on his knees to rescue the relic smoked by El Diego.
The Argentinian asked what the collector was doing, to which he replied “Diego, it had your DNA — I had to conserve it”. Maradona simply turned to his assistant and said: “This guy needs more therapy than me”. He gave Bustamante the sunglasses he was wearing, too.
A few hours in the company of Bustamante, 59, is enough to make you realise he has hundreds of stories like this among his 20,000-strong collection of match-worn football shirts, boots, pennants, trophies, books, medals and more — all stored in a basement in Monterrey, Mexico.
There is the Andres Iniesta shirt from his early days at Barcelona. There are the socks Toni Kroos wore on his final La Liga appearance for Real Madrid — complete with grass stains that Bustamante makes us cross-check against pictures from that game. He has some of the Rolex watches the late Maradona gifted his Dorados players (the man himself famously liked to wear one on each wrist).
Diego Maradona’s half-smoked cigar and sunglasses (Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero/The Athletic)
There is even a letter written by then FIFA president Joao Havelange to his CONCACAF counterpart in 1986, asking him to transfer $25,000 to Jack Warner, head of the Trinidad and Tobago FA at the time, to “settle the momentary difficulties of that federation”.
“My biggest passion is telling stories about football,” Bustamante tells The Athletic. “I like finding out about history and telling it to others, speaking about it and sharing it. I want new generations to learn about the idols of the 1960s, of the 1950s: Don Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, George Best.”
Many of the residents of this World Cup 2026 host city probably have no idea the treasure trove even exists. To get to where it is stored, you have to drive through a security checkpoint and into an abandoned car park. The outside doesn’t look promising — more nuclear bunker than football museum.
What lies underneath has to be seen to be believed. In one room, there are rows of Nike, Adidas, Puma and Umbro boots, all once worn by top players. Next to that is a 7×15 set of shelves holding shirts printed with pretty much every big name imaginable: Pele, Maradona, Lamine Yamal, Luka Modric… Michael Bradley.
(Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero/The Athletic)
The tour starts well: a FIFA referee’s jersey, a yellow card, red card and whistle are laid out on a table as we enter. Bustamante explains they belonged to Edgardo Codesal, who became the first referee to dismiss a player in a World Cup final when he sent off Argentina’s Pedro Monzon in 1990 (before then showing his team-mate Gustavo Dezotti a second yellow late in the game).
Then, Bustamante taps a code into a keypad on the wall and takes us into a room where the real magic happens.
There is a corner dedicated to Maradona, including that cigar, another for Pele and a specially selected collection of English football shirts in the centre of the room, arranged after Bustamante heard The Athletic would be visiting. From a drawer, he takes out a pair of Real Madrid sliders from Kroos’ time at the club. Then he asks, “Do you want to smell Camavinga?”, thrusting a shirt worn by the French midfielder at this reporter.
Bustamante started collecting football shirts as an eight-year-old growing up in the Mexican city of Tampico. He offered to clean players’ cars at the local football club in exchange for their jerseys.
What was it that appealed to him about gathering shirts?
“All the memories that were in that piece of cloth,” he says. “This player played in that game — did they play badly, well, score a goal, save a goal? Everything was in that piece of cloth, with the badge of that team. It attracted me a lot.”
Gabriel Bustamante with the socks Toni Kroos wore on his final La Liga appearance for Real Madrid (Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero/The Athletic)
Eventually, he told the players at Tampico that he didn’t want any more shirts from them, but ones swapped with opponents from bigger teams instead. By the time he moved to Monterrey at 18 to study, he had gathered 500 pieces at his mother’s house. He says he then “lost focus”; he became an engineer for a telecoms company, married and had a daughter.
But he quietly started assembling a network of friends involved in football up and down the country who could help him in his mission: “preserving the history of the most beautiful sport on earth”. Early in the tour, he says he doesn’t care for autographs unless they are from the very top players, while he regularly invites friends and their families down here. He is happy for people to wear, touch and use the items in the collection.
Five per cent of the shirts in the collection were bought at auction while the rest are from his links in Europe — more than 70 came from the former Belgium midfielder Rene Vandereycken, for instance, including the one Kenny Dalglish wore for Liverpool in the 1978 European Cup final against his Club Brugge side.
Remarkably, Bustamante has 12 pairs of swapped shirts where he acquired each half by different means.
(Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero/The Athletic)
He has helped curate exhibitions around Mexico and in Europe, while his son Gabriel has continued the tradition, along with four people who help Bustamante maintain his huge collection.
“My friends say they’re pieces of old cloth, that they’re good for nothing,” he says. “But I’ve got friends who play golf. I’ve got friends who go to Las Vegas to gamble. Everyone has their hobbies.”
The highlight of his collecting journey? Meeting Lothar Matthaus at his house in Munich and getting to touch the former West Germany captain’s 1990 Ballon d’Or. Was he not tempted to ask if he could have that, too?
“Never,” Bustamante says. “It would be a lack of respect.”
