Fifa president has utterly failed to grasp how football allows communities to celebrate their local heroesThere are times when you wonder whether Gianni Infantino has ever interacted with an actual human being, somebody who might tell him how ridiculous he sounds or do something about his white trainers. Maybe this is how he has always been, gabbling away in the language of the football wonk, involuntarily spewing out inane statistics and ludicrous proposals.Even by the standards of the kneejerk populism of modern political figures – Build a wall! Tax cuts! Universal … err… maths! – Infantino’s suggestion that every country should name a stadium after Pelé was absurd even if Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau have fallen into line. Perhaps he...
The displays that brought worldwide affection came in a tournament that has a mythic place in the collective memoryFootball is rarely just football and footballers are rarely just footballers. Pelé was a brilliant forward, a player of grace and imagination, of explosive pace and extraordinary balance, but that is not why his death on Thursday caused such a widespread sense of loss. Nor is it the three World Cups or the two Copa Libertadores he won. To respond to the question of why Pelé mattered with a list of attributes or medals is to miss the point: he mattered because of what he represented.But to define what he represented is almost impossible, not least because, particularly once his playing career...
The former Brazil international came to know Pelé the man, his patience and humility: ‘He was warm, close’Pelé called me his idol once. That was the day I played with him, the only time I did, and it was my most emotional moment with him. It was a benefit match at the Maracanã in April 1979, with 140,000 people there after flooding in Minas Gerais. Flamengo against Atlético Mineiro. “My idol!” he called me; that was him, that was his humour, his character, always embracing you. He played with us – Zico and I were in the Flamengo team – and playing with him was like a dream, especially when I played him a pass. I mean, caramba, I gave...
The Brazilian won the World Cup three times. Here, three men who came face-to-face with the striker reveal their experiencesFew people had heard of Pelé before this tournament in Sweden. By the end – when he had scored twice in the final at the age of just 17 – he had become a household name. The great Swedish winger Kurt Hamrin recalls a “rare talent” who was humble and kind.“In 1958 he was unknown to us Swedes. At the start of the tournament he was injured and didn’t play until the last match of the group stage. I first heard of him a few days before the final, apparently Brazil had a 17-year-old left wing that scored four goals in...
The first global football superstar made everyone smile and his tricks were never designed to diminish his opponentsFor the generation born just after the end of the second world war, the emergence of the teenaged Pelé during the 1958 World Cup opened a door to a new dimension of football. The brief televised highlights of the matches in Sweden were broadcast in a black and white that was actually more like blurred shades of grey but already the Brazilian prodigy seemed to be sharply focused and bathed in a golden glow.The skinny 17-year-old with the flat-top haircut scored six goals, several of them executed with an impudent wit and a hitherto unimaginable level of technique, and then wept openly on...