Sotheby's announced Monday that Pelé's No. 10 Brazil jersey from the 1958 World Cup final will go up for online auction from June 29 to July 16. [Yonhap]
Sotheby's announced Monday that Pelé's No. 10 Brazil jersey from the 1958 World Cup final will go up for online auction from June 29 to July 16. [Yonhap]

The Brazil jersey worn by the late Pelé in the 1958 World Cup final in Sweden is heading to auction.

Sotheby's announced Monday that the No. 10 shirt, worn by Pelé in the 1958 World Cup final, will be offered in an online sale running from June 29 to July 16.

The auction house expects the jersey to fetch more than $6 million (about 9.1 billion won). A Sotheby's representative described it as "the shirt worn on the night the legend of one of the greatest players in football history began."

Pelé wore the shirt as he led Brazil to the title at his first World Cup. Then 17 years old, he scored twice in the final against host nation Sweden, powering Brazil to a 5-2 victory and cementing his status as a global icon of the sport.

Pelé remains the youngest scorer in a World Cup final to this day. Brazil claimed its first World Cup title at the 1958 tournament and went on to win again in 1962 and 1970 with Pelé. He is the only player in history to win the World Cup three times.

After the final, Pelé gave the jersey to his teammate and roommate Dida. The Dida family kept it for many years before it passed through an exhibition at a Brazilian museum and was sold at auction to its current owner in 2004. The owner's identity has not been disclosed.

The all-time record for a soccer jersey at auction belongs to the late Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" shirt from the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, which sold for $9.3 million in 2022. That same year, Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls "Last Dance" jersey set the overall record for a sports shirt, selling for $10.1 million.


rim@heraldcorp.com