"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." That's Sotheby's making the case for Pelé's No. 10 jersey from the 1958 World Cup final, which goes under the hammer from 29 June to 16 July with an estimate north of $6 million.
That would make it the most valuable piece of football memorabilia ever sold belonging to Pelé — the only player to win three World Cups — and it would sit just behind Diego Maradona's $9.28 million jersey from 2022 as the most expensive football shirt ever auctioned. Whether it clears that bar is the real question, but at $6 million-plus, it's already in rarefied air.
The BUDDS auction: one room, multiple legends
Separately, sports memorabilia specialists BUDDS are staging what they're billing as the largest collection of World Cup memorabilia ever offered in a single sale, with over 450 lots expected to exceed £2 million in total. The live sale takes place on 25 June at their Wellingborough auction rooms, preceded by an online window from 1 to 21 June featuring shirts from nations competing at the 2026 World Cup.
Pelé's 1958 winners' medal — earned as a 17-year-old when Brazil beat host nation Sweden 5-2 at the Rasunda Stadium — is expected to fetch up to £500,000 on its own. That's one lot among many that would headline most auctions individually.
Peter Shilton's jersey from the 1986 World Cup — the match Diego Maradona scored the Hand of God goal — is in the sale. So is Gordon Banks' shirt from his famous save against Pelé in 1970, a piece tied to arguably the greatest moment of goalkeeping ever recorded. England's 1966 campaign is represented by Banks' own winners' medal and Alan Ball's shirt from the final.
- Pelé's 1958 World Cup winners' medal — est. up to £500,000
- Gordon Banks' shirt from the 1970 Save of the Century
- Peter Shilton's jersey from the 1986 Hand of God match
- Gordon Banks' 1966 World Cup winners' medal
- Alan Ball's shirt from the 1966 World Cup final
David Convery, head of sporting memorabilia at BUDDS, put it plainly: "Individual items such as Pele's World Cup winner's medal, Gordon Banks' shirt from the Save of the Century or Peter Shilton's jersey from the Hand of God match would normally be headline attractions on their own. To see them all appearing in a single sale is extraordinarily rare."
He's not wrong. These aren't replica shirts or signed photos. They're objects physically present at moments that shaped the sport — and the collector market for that tier of provenance has never been stronger. The $9.28 million paid for Maradona's shirt in 2022 reset expectations across the board. Anyone pricing these lots will have had that number in mind from the start.
