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A jersey worn by soccer legend Pele during Brazil's first-ever World Cup final victory fetched $4.9 million at an American auction on Thursday.
The Brazilian attacker nicknamed "The King" was 17 when he scored two goals in his country's 5-2 victory over the host country, Sweden, in 1958.
The blue shirt became the second most expensive jersey sold at auction after an anonymous buyer beat out four other bidders at Sotheby's in New York.
The record of $9.3 million is for a jersey worn by Argentinian star Maradona during a legendary quarter-final clash with England in the 1986 Mexico World Cup.
Argentina won the match 2-1 thanks to two Maradona goals, including his infamous "Hand of God" finish in which he illegally punched the ball into the net.
According to an article by The Athletic, the shirt remained within Dida’s family in Maceio, Brazil, before it was donated in 1993 to the collection of the Museu dos Esportes Edvaldo Alves Santa Rosa.
The museum auctioned it off in September 2004. The buyer, who paid around $105,000 for the shirt, is selling it more than 20 years later.
“This is not merely a shirt, it is the garment worn by one of the greatest footballers in history on the night his reign began, passed by his own hand to a friend and preserved with care for more than six decades,” head of Sotheby’s modern collectables Brahm Wachter said in a statement.
“Its historical importance is without parallel in the football memorabilia market and is inseparable from the legacy of the sport’s first true global icon.”
In a sign of how quickly the sports memorabilia market has grown, a three-day auction of more than 2,000 Pele items, which included his World Cup medals, trophies and crown for his 1,000th match, sold for a total of nearly $4.2 million in 2016, almost $2 million less than the estimate for the single 1958 jersey.
According to an article by Al Jazeera, Pele’s shirt, while expensive, 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 $24.1 million in 2024.
Other high-value items include basketball player Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals jersey, which sold for $10.1 million, and a football jersey worn by Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal against England, which sold for $9.2 million, according to auctioneers Bonhams.
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