Pelé's Brazil World Cup shirt sells for £42,000 — 70 times its auction estimate

A Brazil shirt worn by Pelé sold for £42,000 at auction — 70 times its pre-sale estimate of £600 to £800 — with auctioneers at BUDDS attributing the extraordinary result to the enduring global fascination with the late football icon. The shirt, believed to have been worn by Pelé at either the 1966 or 1970 FIFA World Cup, headlined a sale that produced a string of record-breaking prices for football memorabilia.

David Convery, head of sporting memorabilia at BUDDS, said the result underlined Pelé’s lasting legacy. “Selling a Pelé World Cup shirt for 70 times its estimated value was a very special moment,” he said. “It goes to show just how much of an impact he has had on the game, and that impact endures with fans today. People are prepared to spend big to own a piece of Pelé history.”

Elsewhere in the same sale, a ticket from the 1930 World Cup final — the very first in the tournament’s history — sold for £4,200. Convery described the item as representing “the start of football’s greatest story”, adding that the original owner’s decision to preserve it for nearly a century made the result all the more remarkable.

Two shirts worn by David Beckham during his controversial red card against Austria at Old Trafford on 8 October 2005 also attracted significant interest, selling together for £26,000. Beckham was dismissed during England’s 2006 World Cup qualifier that evening, becoming the first player in history to be sent off twice while representing the Three Lions — his first dismissal having come during the 1998 World Cup against Argentina, when he kicked out at Diego Simeone.

Convery noted that possessing both the first-half and second-half shirts from the same match was highly unusual. “To have both shirts together that were worn during the same international match is extremely unusual, particularly when that match is remembered for such a significant moment in English football history,” he said. “From the visible signs of match use to the literal smell of authenticity, they are exactly the kind of items collectors are looking for.”

The auctioneer suggested that the current World Cup cycle had helped fuel collector appetite across the board. “The World Cup is one of the few events that can make an entire nation stop what it’s doing, and that emotional connection doesn’t disappear when the final whistle blows,” Convery said.