Pelé's 1958 World Cup Final Shirt Sells for $4.9 Million, Second Only to Maradona's Hand of God Jersey

The No. 10 jersey Pelé wore during Brazil’s 5-2 World Cup final victory over Sweden in 1958 has sold for $4.9 million, auction house Sotheby’s announced on Thursday, setting a new record for Pelé memorabilia and ranking it as the second most valuable football shirt ever sold.

Pelé, who died in December 2022, was just 17 years old when he scored twice at the Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm — a feat that still stands as the youngest a player has ever scored in a World Cup final. The handmade shirt he wore that day remains one of the most historically significant pieces of football memorabilia in existence.

Only Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” jersey, which fetched $9.3 million at auction in 2022, sits above it in the all-time rankings for football shirts. The sale also comfortably eclipses the previous record for a Pelé item — a 1958 trading card that sold for $976,000 just last month, according to Sotheby’s.

The shirt’s journey to the auction block spans more than six decades. After the final, Pelé gifted it to his roommate and Brazil teammate Dida. The jersey remained within Dida’s family for many years before being housed in a Brazilian museum and eventually acquired by a private owner in 2004.

The sale underlines the enduring global appetite for memorabilia connected to football’s most iconic figures. With Maradona’s Hand of God shirt and now this Pelé jersey commanding prices in the tens of millions, the market for historically significant match-worn items shows no sign of cooling.