Pele’s 1958 World Cup winners’ medal set to fetch £500,000

Pele’s World Cup winners’ medals are on display, including his 1958 medal, which he won when he was a teenager. (Reuters pic)

LONDON: Pele’s 1958 World Cup winners’ medal is expected to fetch £500,000 (US$670,000) when it is auctioned in England later this month.

The medal, won by the Brazilian legend when he was a teenager, is part of a catalogue of 450 World Cup-related items being sold by sporting memorabilia specialists BUDDS, which estimates they will fetch £2 million in total.

A Brazil shirt won by Pele in the 1958 final is estimated to sell for more than US$6 million in a separate auction at Sotheby’s in New York, which runs June 29 to July 16 – three days before this year’s World Cup final.

Pele, then just 17 years old, scored two of Brazil’s five goals in the 1958 final against host nation Sweden.

The victory marked the first of Brazil’s record five World Cup titles, three of which were spearheaded by the striker known as “The King”.

Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, died in December 2022 at the age of 82 after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

Other lots in the British auction include the shirt worn by England goalkeeper Gordon Banks when he made his famous save from Pele at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

The auction also features memorabilia from England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, including Banks’ winners’ medal and Alan Ball’s shirt from the final.

“This is the largest collection of World Cup memorabilia ever offered at auction, and it is difficult to imagine many sales that could rival it in terms of historical significance,” said David Convery, head of sporting memorabilia at BUDDS.

An online auction is running from June 1 to 21 featuring shirts from the nations competing at the 2026 World Cup, before a live sale on June 25 at BUDDS’s auction rooms in Wellingborough, central England.