Pelé’s shirt from the 1958 World Cup final is auctioned for a record amount

The t-shirt that Pele dressed in the final of the FIFA World Cup Sweden in 1958 it was sold this Thursday at Sotheby’s in New York for 4.9 million dollars (4.2 million euros), becoming the most expensive object related to his sporting career.

The blue garment with a 10 on the back was the star of an auction of historical football objects and started with an estimate of around six million dollars, the highest bid for a belonging of Pelé, which turned out to be too optimistic.

By wearing that shirt, a seventeen-year-old Pelé then became the youngest player to score a goal in a World Cup and contributed two to Brazil’s victory against Sweden (5-2) that earned him the first of his three world titles and of the five that the Canarinha has held in its entire history.

Pelé gave it to his teammate Dida

The shirt that Pelé wore during the 1958 final was a gift from the player to his teammate and friend Dida, whose family kept it for decades before it ended up in a museum and was auctioned for the first time in 2004 for an undisclosed sum.

Now sold after ten bids from five bidders to an anonymous buyer, the shirt has become the second most expensive in the world, according to the auction house.

The record of 9.3 million dollars is held by the shirt he wore Diego Armando Maradona on June 22, 1986 in Mexico City during the legendary quarterfinal match against England. Argentina won 2-1 thanks to two legendary goals from ‘Pelusa, known as ‘the hand of God’ and ‘the goal of the century’.