Pele opens exhibition celebrating ’58 World Cup anniversary

Pele inaugurated an exhibition with personal objects celebrating the 50th anniversary of Brazil's first World Cup title.

Pele inaugurated an exhibition with personal objects celebrating the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s first World Cup title.

The exhibition ‘The King’s Marks’ opened on Wednesday in Brasilia’s National Museum remembering Brazil’s victorious campaign in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

Among the objects on display is the radio in which the young Pele and his father, Dondinho, listened eight years earlier to Brazil’s disappointing loss to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium. Pele made a bold prediction at the time.

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“My father was sobbing listening to the match and I was just a kid and said ‘Don’t cry, I will win a World Cup to you,” Pele said.

He was only 17 years old when he helped Brazil claim its first world title in a 5-2 win over Sweden in Stockholm.

The exhibition, which will eventually go on a tour of Brazil and other countries, also includes a shoeshine box that Pele used as a kid to earn money to buy his first football boots.

In the inauguration, former Swedish midfielder Kurt Hamrin, who played in the 1958 final, gave Pele a jersey with the Swedish colors and the No 58 on it.