This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/6/2021
Edson Arantes do Nascimento is the only professional athlete (at least that we know of) that played the first half of a game for one team and the second half for the opposing team. Of course, we're talking about soccer legend Pele (didn't you read the title?) and the game was his farewell to the sport, scoring a goal for his Brazilian Club Santos FC team in the first half against his American squad, the New York Cosmos, then switching jerseys at halftime to help the Cosmos overcome his own goal to lead New York to a 2-1 victory. It was a fun and fitting farewell to the man universally recognized as the greatest footballer of all time, a national hero in two countries. Pele became the face of the sport in 1958 as a 17-year old phenom, leading Brazil to the first of five World Cups by scoring a hat trick against France in the semifinals and adding two more goals to defeat Sweden for the trophy. Having broken most of the scoring records in the Brazilian leagues and in international play, Pele became an ambassador of the sport in the United States. Joining the New York Cosmos and playing alongside European notables Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia, Pele helped delight Big Apple crowds of up to 80,000 in attendance. Just as Pele was pulling off his heroics in the 1958 World Cup, Swedish trading card manufacturer Alifabolaget was releasing a collection of 36-cards featuring various world athletes, as they had done since 1949. And in an ironic twist, since he was almost single-handedly responsible for dashing the countries World Cup title hopes, Pele was included in the set, making it among the first cards ever devoted to the soccer legend. The featured card is recently evaluated by PSA and has been assessed "authentic - altered", though we simply don't agree. We've gone over the card and find no basis for that determination, and given that the card came to us from a collector in Sweden who had it as part of his personal collection, we find the judgment unlikely. That aside, the card is absolutely fantastic, portraying the teenage sensation with boldness and clarity, featuring NM/MT corners and a virtually flawless reverse surface. We've never seen a more pristine example of the ultra-rare issue!