December RIP

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Pelé was a lovely man – and the idea of perfection for me
Jorge Valdano
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Pelé is an idea of perfection for me. The relationship you have with football depends in part on your age of discovery, and television came into my home with the Mexico World Cup in 1970. I was 14 years old and my mum gave me this gift, a homage, of buying a television set so that I could watch the World Cup, alone in the kitchen at home. When a television comes into the kitchen of your home, with Pelé inside, that marks you for life. I cried with emotion, with happiness, because of that Brazil team.

Not long ago I watched a documentary about Pelé that was very focused on the 1970 World Cup. At the end, he said that when the tournament came to an end and he was in the dressing room, he cried because he felt that he had finally lifted from his shoulders the weight of the whole of Brazil. And watching that, I couldn’t help feeling that I was there at home crying from happiness because of what this guy had done for us, and there he was at the same time, but also crying with anguish because he had finally been liberated from the pressure.


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Pelé (second right, front row), with Lionel Messi after the Argentinian won his third Ballon d’Or in 2012.Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
There have been very few geniuses. Pelé was one of them. Messi is the latest. Maradona, Cruyff, Di Stéfano too, those who have revolutionised football. They appear only every 20, 25 years. And I refuse to compare across eras. Every genius marks their era. Pelé, like Maradona, was also representative of a time when South America played against Europe and that’s no longer the case – now all of Argentina and all of Brazil is playing in Europe. He was the representative of a team that defined that World Cup.

I never saw him play live. In the last few years, we coincided at conferences and events. One time, I introduced him by saying that between the two of us we had scored more than 1,300 goals. He laughed. And I started winding him up about Di Stéfano, Maradona, Messi, and he said:“You know, I have an Argentinian friend who a long time ago came to me and said that Di Stéfano was better than me. Twenty years passed and he came back and said there’s this guy called Maradona and he’s better than you. And now they’re talking about this guy called Messi who’s better than me. And I said to him: ‘Agree among yourselves which one it is and send him to me.’”

He was a lovely man, likable. Just as Maradona was anti-system, he functioned within the system.
 
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Tarcisio Burgnich is regarded as one of the greatest Italian defenders of all-time, a key player in Helenio Herrera’s great Internazionale side. Capped 66 times, he played in three World Cup finals including the 4-1 defeat to Brazil in 1970 where he famously said about Pelé’s headed goal against him: “I told myself before the game: ‘He’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else’ – but I was wrong.”

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Italy’s Tarcisio Burgnich acrobatically attempts to clear the ball away from Brazil’s Pele during the 1970 World Cup final. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
“Who could forget 1970? That match was truly very odd since we never had a good balance: we felt overwhelmed, we could still feel the effects of the Germany match [Italy won the semi-final, later dubbed The Game of the Century, 4-3 after extra-time] on our energy level. We understood that the morning before the final. I remember when the coach [Ferruccio Valcareggi] asked me: “How do you feel?” My answer was: “I don’t have my legs”.

There were different ways to try to take Pelé out of the game, we studied all of them. You had to be very careful to every detail, every move, every step. But there was some confusion regarding the way we were marking him. The difficulty was, when he moved back to the midfield, it was [Mario] Bertini who was supposed to mark him. When he was playing up-front it was up to me. But Pelé was smart: the minute I arrived, he would flee to the midfield to get the ball. This caused our plan to be thrown off.

I played against Pelé a few times, in New York. What I could do with my hands, he did with his feet. He was a universe contained in just one player: he had the pace, the headers, then his feet … either right or left, he always found a way to be lethal.

For me Pelé was the greatest. I would describe him as a great man, on top of being an extraordinary athlete and footballer. I also want to point something out: despite being known everywhere, he has never been [pilloried] because of gossip or things of that nature. A true example. Pelé didn’t have something more than others … Pelé had everything. The ability of a champion, perfect body, professionalism. On top of extraordinary class that he had in great quantity, enough that he could have sold it.”
 
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Legend.

Did a lot for male erectile dysfunction which went against the grain at the time.


Never saw him play but he was the best of his time.
 
one does wonder whether 1966 would have been quite the same without his injury.
 
there was a biography several years ago. i still have it somewhere. listed all his games and goals, but i did notice an error in it which put his goal count higher (by 2, iirc) than it should have been. it did include an awful lot of reserve and "other" matches. i'd be heading for or past a thousand if all my games ever were added up and i'm sure others would be too.
 
RIP Pele
I bet he's made the side of the best XI former world cup winners, no longer with us, along with the likes of Maradona, Moore, Rossi, Muller et al.
 
You probably will not have heard of him but this 85 year old man, Donal Rogers, garnered 200k supporters from across the world (including Ricky Gervais & Kate Beckinsale) to not have his dog, Kim, a Jack Russell with no previous issues , put down after nipping a passer-by in March. Put through eight months of extreme mental anguish, not only including the fate of his dog but the suggestion of a prison sentence, by an indifferent Irish court system and a woman with form for having dogs put down for biting her, it took global support, and free legal aid from a barrister and a solicitor to eventually get the order put on permanent hold. No amount of pleading with the "victim" a self-proclaimed good Christian to whom he offered every possible alternative to destruction of his dog, would soften her stance. No empathy demonstrated, no appreciation that his dog was all he had left in life, no amount of guarantees to ensure that the dog would be under constant surveillance would appease this woman who lived at the far end of the country and would never encounter the dog again. His got his reprieve but it clearly took its toll. The man died on Christmas day. RIP Donal
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I seen on FB that a Youth Player for North Ferriby has passed away. Extremely sad news and condolences with family.
 
Ullofaman said:
You probably will not have heard of him but this 85 year old man, Donal Rogers, garnered 200k supporters from across the world (including Ricky Gervais & Kate Beckinsale) to not have his dog, Kim, a Jack Russell with no previous issues , put down after nipping a passer-by in March. Put through eight months of extreme mental anguish, not only including the fate of his dog but the suggestion of a prison sentence, by an indifferent Irish court system and a woman with form for having dogs put down for biting her, it took global support, and free legal aid from a barrister and a solicitor to eventually get the order put on permanent hold. No amount of pleading with the "victim" a self-proclaimed good Christian to whom he offered every possible alternative to destruction of his dog, would soften her stance. No empathy demonstrated, no appreciation that his dog was all he had left in life, no amount of guarantees to ensure that the dog would be under constant surveillance would appease this woman who lived at the far end of the country and would never encounter the dog again. His got his reprieve but it clearly took its toll. The man died on Christmas day. RIP Donal
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Let's hope she's not far behind Donal.
 
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