Poland played Argentina in the final group-stage match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Once, the South American side Aston Villa defender Matty Cash looked to secure a jersey swap with Lionel Messi.
Cash leaned on his teammate Emi Martinez to secure the Argentina jersey off the back of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner. Then, in the Round of 16, Poland faced France and got a jersey swap with Kylian Mbappe after the fixture.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Cash explained the lengths he went through to ensure that the two jerseys don’t mysteriously go missing.
“I’ve got hand luggage here,” Cash told the English outlet. “From Qatar to Dubai I made sure those shirts were right with me. I put them in the safe in the hotel room as well.
“It will be going on the hand luggage with me!”
The in-game used jerseys at the 2022 World Cup from Messi and Mbappe are valuable sets of memorabilia that any football collector with deep pockets would want in their collection.
So Cash’s super cautious approach is understood, considering numerous stories of jerseys and other memorabilia going missing and ending up being auctioned off by someone else or kept by that person who comes across it during the process.