There’s only one four-letter way to refer to the king of world football: Pelé. Much more than a legend. Much more important than the endless and futile debate about the hierarchy in Olympus, the order of Di Stéfano, Pelé, Cruyff, Maradona and Messi, which produces the greatest consensus when it comes to classifying the most mythologized myths. Everyone had their own, Pelé had everything. There was a magical coincidence in him. Di Stéfano ended his career in 1966, just when television was no longer a luxury. The World Cup finals have been broadcast since 1958, but only a privileged few have been able to see the oral legend already circulating about Pelé, son of Dondinho, a humble ex-player who retired due to injury aged 24 and was revered of his offspring -the genius said with absolute devotion that his father scored five goals with his head in one game-.
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The boy Pelé had been a child prodigy ever since Walter Brito, a Brazil international at the 1934 World Cup, was fascinated to see him play for Bauru Atletic Club, a club from a municipality in the state of São Paulo for which the family had drawn his football career from Dondinho. With the clinical eye of Walter Brito, Pelé made his Santos debut aged 16, made his Canarinha debut at 17 with a goal against celebratory Argentinian goalkeeper Amadeo Carrizo and before he was 18 he was already a world champion following his teenage adventures in Sweden. The story of the Brazilian miracle was heard or read, but beyond Brazil and the lucky ones who followed him live on one of Santos’ world tours or at the World Championships in Sweden and Chile (1962), Pelé was just a fable to large audiences. How to believe the feat his teammates and rivals marveled at after a clash with Juventus of Brazil. It was 1959 and the Santos striker, the “Ballet Blanco”: Dorval, Mengalvio, Coutinho, Pelé and Pepe, was already a national phenomenon. According to witnesses, O Rei threw four hats that day against Barau, the last one at the opposing goalkeeper, and headed into an empty goal. The goal was never filmed. In the spirit of Pelé, the author of the best goals without a goal in the archive of football treasures. The header that made the Englishman Gordon Banks’ save sublime, the parable of the Czech goalkeeper Ivo Viktor, the mocking bow – the body on one side, the ball on the other – to the Uruguayan Ladislao Mazurkiewicz… Before that, they were amazed Folks the Tabelinhas, the mesmerizing walls that O Rei and Coutinho wasted. Everything about Pelé was magical, what he did, enthroned him, what to do, idolized him. A shrewd footballer, wearing a top hat, with a privileged physique who was familiar with the goal like no other. The first great Houdini to transcend in this way.
Pelé came to Sweden as a substitute for the World Cup. His position corresponded to José Altafani, an Italian-Brazilian who left a great mark on Calcio (Naples, Milan, Juventus, Turin) where he was nicknamed Mazzola because he recalled the great Valentino Mazzola, star of the tragic Torino who played in Superga fell in 1949. In the third game of the Scandinavian event, Pelé was a starter and scored in the three remaining games against Wales, France and Sweden. A total of six goals in four games. His tears after beating the hosts with a brace of his own in the final symbolized an overjoyed child at the top of the world. And what a kid! The first of the two goals he scored in the final was anthological. Received a cross from Zagallo – who would be his coach at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Brazil’s feat, the apotheosis of the best team in history – he threw two hats, the first with a do on his chest and potted one out. Splendid.
Pelé during a game with Santos in 1968. Boston Globe (Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Brazilian star’s career was limited to Santos and Brazil. It was never delivered to Europe, something that has been repeatedly accused by some sectors. With Santos he won 45 titles. And the Peixe, as the team from São Paulo is also called, pushed him so hard from tour to tour that his body suffered more and more often. At Chile 62, a groin problem prevented him from playing more than two games in which he scored. In England 66, the Portuguese massacre with Morais as the main butcher left Pelé almost without a tournament (two games, one goal) and Brazil in the ditch in the first phase. Quite a blow, the double champion exiled in no time. The resurrection of Pelé and Brazil would be extraordinary. The best selection in history was brewing. Destination: Mexico 70.
José Saldanha was quite a character. Botafogo footballer, he did sports journalism, was a coach and a member of the Communist Party. His arrival at the head of the Canarinha had its crumbs. There are those who always suspected that the president of the Brazilian federation – and later FIFA – João Havelange gave him the position in the expectation that the criticism would be benevolent because he was one of the guild. Saldanha was a weird guy, he even threatened with a revolver in his hand. The dictatorship wanted to force players on him, which the communist voters rejected. It was so difficult to twist his arm that he put Pele in the dark room of substitution in a friendly against Bulgaria, a colossal event in all of Brazil. Saldanha claimed that O Rei had poor eyesight… that it was difficult to fit someone who is approaching 30 and with a beaten-up body into a team with Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostão and Rivelino.
Such was the scandal that Saldanha was replaced by Mario Zagallo, Pelé’s former international teammate, a few months before the 1970 World Cup. Zagallo assembled the praetorians of the squad at the Hotel Das Palmeiras in Rio, they defined the role of each and the totemic striker of the Five Tens came about because they were all, the four mentioned plus Pelé, Tens in their teams Jairzinho – who appeared in all games scored a goal on Mexican soil, a unique record in World Cup history – had been a winger prior to his move. Brazil were equally devastated and mesmerized by the Mexico tournament, where Pelé, who had hinted four years earlier that he would not return to the national team, lifted his third trophy after scoring four goals in six games, one of them in the final against Italy . At that point, with the television already a ubiquitous device, no one doubted that the throne of world football had a single king. The one that made it possible to specify a unique footballer in four letters: Pelé.
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