Pele 1958 World Cup Medal Expected To Bring £500,000 At England Auction

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The winners’ medal Pele earned at the 1958 World Cup is projected to sell for about £500,000 ($670,000) at an auction in England later in June.

The award, claimed by the Brazil great while he was still a teenager, is one of 450 World Cup items in a sale being handled by sporting memorabilia firm BUDDS. The company believes the full catalogue could bring in roughly £2 million.

In a different sale, Sotheby’s in New York is offering a Brazil shirt associated with Pele from the 1958 final, with expectations that it could make more than $6 million. That auction is scheduled for June 29 to July 16, ending three days before this year’s World Cup final.

Pele was only 17 when he scored twice in Brazil’s 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden in the 1958 final. That success gave Brazil the first of its record five World Cup crowns, with three of those triumphs led by the forward widely called “The King”.

Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele died in December 2022 at 82 after he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.

The British auction will also include the jersey England goalkeeper Gordon Banks wore when he produced his celebrated stop from Pele during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Items from England’s 1966 World Cup-winning campaign are also listed, among them Banks’ winners’ medal and Alan Ball’s shirt from that 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, BUDDS’s head of sporting memorabilia.

An online sale, running from June 1 to 21, includes shirts from countries taking part in the 2026 World Cup. A live auction will follow on June 25 at BUDDS’s rooms in Wellingborough, central England.