![\"Football](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1994-03-28T120000Z_888106580_PBEAHUNGHBD_RTRMADP_3_PELE-1784246634.jpg\")
Football star Pele speaks with a group of journalists assembled by World Cup sponsor Mastercard in New York, on March 28, 1994 [File: Reuters]<\/p>\nThe sale is a record for the Brazilian footballing great, but it is far from the most expensive piece of sporting memorabilia to be auctioned.<\/p>\n
Published On 17 Jul 202617 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
The shirt worn by Brazil football icon Pele when he scored two goals to bring his team to victory in the World Cup final of 1958 has sold for $4.9m.<\/p>\n
Sotheby\u2019s, the auction house that facilitated the sale, said on Thursday that the shirt has become the most expensive piece of Pele memorabilia ever sold.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
The shirt received 10 bids from more than five bidders in an auction in New York.<\/p>\n
It is particularly valuable because of the game the Brazilian wore it in.<\/p>\n
\u2018This shirt was there\u2019 in 1958<\/p>\n
Pele, who died in 2022, was 17 when he scored twice in Brazil\u2019s 5-2 win over hosts Sweden in the final.<\/p>\n
He was, and remains, the youngest player to score in a World Cup final. That game secured Brazil its first World Cup victory.<\/p>\n
Pele, whose real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, went on to become one of Brazil\u2019s \u2013 and the entire footballing world\u2019s \u2013 most iconic players.<\/p>\n
The images of the 1958 World Cup final have become \u201csome of the most reproduced in the history of the sport\u201d, Sotheby\u2019s said, adding: \u201cThis shirt was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shirt had previously sold at auction in 2004 for 70,505 pounds ($105,600), according to Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Football star Pele speaks with a group of journalists assembled by World Cup sponsor Mastercard in New York, on March 28, 1994 [File: Reuters]<\/p>\n
While expensive, Pele\u2019s shirt is not even nearly the most expensive piece of sporting memorabilia ever sold. That award goes to a baseball jersey worn by legendary batter Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series, which sold for $24.1m in 2024.<\/p>\n
Other high-value items include basketball player Michael Jordan\u2019s 1998 NBA Finals jersey, which sold for $10.1m, and a football jersey worn by Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal against England, which sold for $9.2m, according to auctioneers Bonhams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sale is a record for the Brazilian footballing great, but it is far from the most expensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1083,4118,85,46,16632,2224,105,1032,1156,6866],"class_list":["post-545477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-brazil","tag-football","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-latin-america","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}