For years, Diego Maradona's 1981 Boca Juniors shirt was stored away along with mounds of other football memorabilia that Carlos Tevez had accrued over his long, glittering professional career.
However, when Boca travelled to Porto Alegre, for a Copa Libertadores clash which had been delayed by one week due to the Boca and Argentina legend's death, Tevez brought his most prized souvenir along for the ride.
So, when he netted in the 89th minute of the game against Internacional last Wednesday, the veteran forward pulled off his own jersey to reveal Maradona's '81 shirt underneath.
“I had to break the frames to get the Diego shirts out,” Tevez explained to TyC Sports.
The shirt was worn by a 20-year-old Maradona in a Metropolitana championship victory over River Plate. Diego, fresh from his move from Argentinos Juniors, had scored one of his side's goals to sink their arch-rivals in the Bombonera.
“I drove Diego crazy before he gave me the '81 shirt,” Tevez laughed after the Inter match.
“First, he gave me the Olan shirt, which I still have. Then the '81, which for me is the best. I decided to use it as a tribute to Diego.
“That shirt is heavy. When I put it on, something which I cannot explain entered my body. History. I went out calmly to play because I knew I was going to score at least once.
“Diego is unique. He is God. He knew I'd be here and score a goal. He's from another planet, I went out with his confidence.”
Dalma Maradona, the late star's eldest daughter, repaid the forward's kindness, writing on social media: “Thank you, Carlitos, you are part of this family.”
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Thanks to Tevez's late strike, Boca need only draw Wednesday's return leg in the Bombonera to set up a last-eight clash with Racing Club. Victory over their fellow Argentines would mean a third consecutive appearance in the tournament's semi-finals.
At 36, this current edition may represent Carlitos' best chance of finally regaining the title which has pushed him on and tormented him in equal measure since returning to Argentine football five years ago.
The good news for Boca fans is that, for all the turmoil of 2020, he is looking better than ever, rolling back the years to provide an inspirational presence in the Xeneize line-up.
Maradona, of course, never got his hands on the Libertadores. What is more, he never played a single match in South America's most important club competition.
Despite his extraordinary exploits as a youngster at Argentinos, including five top-scorer crowns in the space of two years, the club never won either of the two annual championships which would have provided access to the Copa under the old rules.
In 1981, he led Boca to the Metropolitana title, bagging 17 goals, but the following year his call-up to Cesar Menotti's World Cup squad entailed four months of pre-tournament preparation, causing him to miss the entire first half of the club calendar.
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By the time Argentina's campaign had finished, Diego was already on the way to Barcelona, while neither of his later spells with Newell's Old Boys or Boca included continental football.
Tevez, by contrast, was just 19 when his five goals – including a decisive strike in the second leg of the final against Santos – helped Carlos Bianchi's famed Boca side to their third title in four years in 2003.
For good measure, Boca went on to prevail over Milan in the Intercontinental Cup, while five years later Tevez picked up the Champions League with Manchester United to join a select group of just 11 players to be crowned continental champions on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Overall, Carlitos boasts 25 major senior titles, the last coming in Argentina's Superliga in March thanks to victory over none other than Maradona's Gimnasia. That game, and the kiss the two shared, now seems to belong to a different, happier time, when coronavirus was still just a potential menace and Diego still walked among us.
Tevez's medal haul marks him out as one of the greats of his generation, although multiple messy club exits have perhaps left their mark on his otherwise impeccable legacy.
As recently as the start of 2020, the striker threatened to add another acrimonious departure to the list, with the ascension of long-time sparring partner Juan Roman Riquelme to vice-president in the club's elections. That dispute was ultimately smoothed over and, in August ,Tevez committed his future to Boca until June 2021.
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But while Tevez and Riquelme's relationship is frosty at best, the same cannot be said for his bond with Boca's other famed No.10.
Maradona took the young Carlitos under his wing as soon as he assumed command of the Argentina team in 2008 and the pair stayed close; their affections even surviving the ever-turbulent waters of local politics.
While Diego was closely identified with the left-wing admirers of Cuba and Venezuela in the Peronist movement, Tevez is a close friend of former Boca and Argentina President Mauricio Macri, dubbing the conservative politician “the man who can change Argentina” in a 2017 interview.
Upon learning of Maradona's death, Tevez reportedly locked himself in his hotel room in Porto Alegre, where Boca had been scheduled to play Inter prior to the game's postponement, refusing to talk to either his team-mates or anyone else and turning off his telephone.
Coach Miguel Angel Russo excused him from duty the following weekend against Newell's on compassionate grounds, with the grief over Diego adding to the angst he has been suffering over the health of his father, who was hospitalised with Covid-19 in November.
Just as he did in September after six months of inactivity, though, Tevez bounced back to prove his side's match-winner against Inter, taking his recent record to five goals in as many games in all competitions. Not, as he admits, without a little help from his great friend and mentor.
“I'm sure Diego is looking down on us from up high,” the emotional veteran told reporters after the game, as he dedicated the goal and Boca's triumph to Maradona's family.
While there is still a long way to go in both this tie and the Copa as a whole, the entire Boca world is dreaming of Carlitos getting his hands on the title that has slipped through his fingers so many times in the last five years.
And with the final scheduled for January 30, 2021, what better tribute to Diego than for it to arrive during the 40th anniversary of his first, blistering appearances in the blue and gold of Boca Juniors.