After Messi was said to have broken the Brazilian’s record for goals at a single club, Santos updated their statisticsIt seems odd looking back now, but Pelé’s 50th birthday was marked with a star-studded Pelé exhibition match televised live around the world.Before kick-off a giant Pelé cake was wheeled out at San Siro, on top of which Pelé himself appeared, waving and punching the air in priestly white Pelé-robes, while a massed Pelé-choir sang Happy Birthday Dear Pelé. The Pelé Supremacy filled the skies. And that moment the Pelé-shaped universe was a complete and coherent entity. Related: Does Maradona's greatness really have to stand in opposition to something else? | Jonathan Liew The fear is Pelé will be unduly downgraded,...
The England legend, with one flick of his right hand, mystified Pelé a half-century ago and glamourised his craft from then onPerfection means different things to different people. To some, its pursuit invests life with rich meaning, nobility even, while others merely see a misery-inducing, distinctly Sisyphean, obsession.Most regard it as subjective but, just occasionally, the rarest of moments offer an objective definition. Fifty years ago on Sunday Gordon Banks’s split second of sheer brilliance melded flawlessness, completeness and excellence in one single gravity-defying save from Pelé. Related: Gordon Banks on his famous Pelé save: 'I didn’t even realise I’d made it' Related: From the archive: England 0-1 Brazil, World Cup match report (1970). By Albert Barham Continue reading...
As the sons of Pelé and Diego Maradona found out, it can be fraught filling a father’s lofty bootsMy father was a lawyer and, in my childhood imagination and so far as I can ascertain also in fact, quite a good one. From time to time, as I blundered towards adulthood with no obvious idea what to do when I got there, he would encourage me towards the law, a vocation he always found intellectually stimulating and also, serendipitously, financially rewarding. In this endeavour, alas, he had no success. Why, I reasoned, would I voluntarily enter a profession in which I would be doomed to be forever compared unfavourably with an overachieving parent? With this same logic in mind, I...
When Pele’s old club announced they were holding open tryouts, I, a 31-year-old journalist with no professional football experience, dared to dreamPele. Franz Beckenbauer. Carlos Alberto.In the 1970s, some of the greatest football players in the world turned out for the New York Cosmos. The team invested a fortune in attracting foreign talent, and won the North American Soccer League in 1977, 1978 and 1980. Related: Are the New York Cosmos dead again, or waiting for another resurrection? I was wearing a grey fisherman’s knit sweater. I’ve never seen Cristiano Ronaldo play in a cardigan Continue reading...
Pedro Garay only stood 5ft 6in but he protected the world’s greatest player during his whirlwind career with the New York CosmosIt was 1975, and in his wildest imagination, Pedro Garay never dreamed he would wind up in the middle of this wild, almost surreal scenario. There he was, draped over the greatest football player to ever walk the Earth, protecting him from a horde of pitch invaders. The Cuban refugee was guarding American soccer’s most precious jewel at the time, the incomparable Pelé. Pelé’s shirt, shorts and sneakers had been ripped off by the over-zealous fans who had come to Boston’s Nickerson Field stadium to watch the New York Cosmos superstar in his first season in North American Soccer...