Pelé’s match-worn number 10 shirt from the 1958 FIFA World Cup Final will headline The Beautiful Game, a dedicated Sotheby’s auction of football memorabilia open for bidding from 29 June to 16 July, with a public exhibition at the firm’s Breuer building in New York from 1 July. Estimated in excess of $6 million, the shirt is poised to become the most valuable piece of Pelé memorabilia sold at auction, following Sotheby’s sale of Diego Maradona’s “ Hand of God” shirt in 2022, which achieved $9.3 million.
On 29 June 1958, a seventeen-year-old Brazilian named Edson Arantes do Nascimento, already known simply as Pelé, scored twice as Brazil defeated Sweden 5 to 2 at Stockholm’s Rasunda Stadium to claim the country’s first World Cup title. He became the youngest player ever to score in a World Cup Final, a record that still stands. At the final whistle he collapsed in tears on the shoulder of teammate Djalma Santos, in what became one of the defining photographs in the history of sport.
Pelé did not begin the tournament in Brazil’s starting eleven. The number 10 shirt belonged initially to Dida, Edvaldo Alves Santa Rosa, who shared a room with the young substitute throughout the competition. Their friendship shaped the provenance of the shirt offered here, which Pelé presented to Dida immediately after the final whistle. When Pelé entered the tournament in the third group stage match against the Soviet Union, his impact was immediate: he scored the decisive goal against Wales in the quarter-finals and became the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick in a World Cup semi-final, against France.
The shirt itself carries an unusual history. Brazil’s iconic yellow kit could not be worn in the final due to a colour clash with Sweden, forcing the delegation to commission a set of plain blue shirts at short notice. Players personally transferred the CBD badges and improvised the numbers by cutting material from yellow equipment bags. Entirely handmade in finish, the garment offered here is one of those shirts. Following the final it remained within Dida’s family in Maceió for decades before being donated in 1993 to the Museu dos Esportes Edvaldo Alves Santa Rosa, which offered it at auction on 21 September 2004, when it was acquired by the present owner.
Alongside the final shirt, the sale presents Pelé-era memorabilia anchored by a 1958 Alifabolaget #635 Pelé Rookie Card, graded PSA 8, among the finest known examples of the card that introduced the young Brazilian to the wider collecting world (est. $150,000 to $200,000). Further highlights include the captain’s armband worn by Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup, linked to the ‘ Hand of God’ quarter-final and photomatched to the semifinal and final in which Argentina secured the championship (estimate in excess of $100,000).
The sale also offers seven Lionel Messi match-worn shirts spanning his international and club career. Among them is a shirt worn during the 6 to 1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 second leg on 8 March 2017, the match known as La Remontada, in which Barcelona overturned a four-goal first-leg deficit (est. $200,000 to $400,000). Further shirts include a 2021 Argentina World Cup Qualifier example from the campaign leading to the 2022 triumph (est. $80,000 to $100,000), and a 2022 Argentina shirt worn by Messi during the first half of an international friendly against Honduras in which he scored (est. $80,000 to $100,000).
(Press Release)
