A special replica World Cup trophy presented to world football icon Pele fetched £395,000 (HK$4.5 million) at an auction of his personal memorabilia in London on Wednesday.
Two of the 75-year-old Brazil legend’s three World Cup winners medals also went under the hammer selling for well over their estimated price going for a collective price of £340,000 on the second day of the three-day sale held in London but under the banner of Los Angeles auction house Julien’s Auctions.
However, the Jules Rimet trophy was the most expensive individual lot with Swiss watchmaking giant Hublot timing their final bid perfectly for an item which had been reckoned to fetch between £281,000 and £450,000.
It had been made for him after Brazil’s third World Cup victory in 1970 in Mexico.
Pele’s medal from his first World Cup victory in 1958 when he was just a teenager sold for £200,000, well over the estimated price of £70,000-140,000.