Pelé had a heavy bag with Brazil. He was the total footballer and that meant he had a responsibility to win everything. If he could do that, he would have to outdo himself as often as necessary. This burden of being the best was accentuated when the military dictatorship used him as a model Brazilian, an icon for the world. That forced him to win his third World Cup in 1966 at all costs. The excessive pressure caused the Canarinha to fall in the first round of the World Cup. Four years later, Pelé found two soccer temples in Mexico that made him a sports legend and where he could rediscover his smile.
The Brazilian team set up camp for the 1970 World Cup in Guadalajara, Jalisco, a city that protected them from the early days and helped defuse pressure from the Brazilian government. “It was an important World Cup for Brazil, but at the time I didn’t want to be Pelé,” he said in the Netflix documentary of his life. The Brazilian Confederation chose the Caribe Suites as their hotel, which has now been converted into a four-star hotel. Training took place at Club Providencia, a small institution that managed to convince the then two-time world champion to train in their facilities.
Providencia’s weren’t the best fields in Guadalajara because those were those of Atlas and Chivas’ professional teams. The representatives of Brazil only asked for three things: that only four employees could do the cleaning, privacy and that no one else enter the field. One of the club’s members, Samuel Rodríguez, admitted to ESPN that Providencia had the gall to harass the managers to get Canarinha to stay with them. 52 years later, a Pelé signature on one of the ceilings and a commemorative plaque survive. In the Caribe Suites, room 154 had a mural honoring the Brazilians, but it has disappeared with the modernization of the house.
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The Mexicans inaugurated the so-called Plaza Brasil near a bullring and the Jalisco stadium. This venue was the ideal haven for the Zagallo team: it was there that they played the three group stage games, the quarter-final game and the semi-finals. Guadalajara chose Pele over England’s Bobby Charlton. The locals weren’t wrong because this team from Brazil beat all their rivals, there was never a draw or a loss.
Pelé plays the guitar in one of his free moments at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.Picture Parade
Thousands of girls, boys and adults faced Pelé from the stands. Away from the hustle and bustle in the stands, Mexico was fortunate to be the first World Cup organizer to broadcast the games in full color for the whole world. All of Pelé’s talent has been immortalized. In the final against Italy, the Brazilian team won 4-1 on the pitch of Azteca Stadium. Farewell to the pressure that has come together with the coup since 1964. Pelé found his relief, a way to redeem himself with his arms raised, shirtless and wearing a charro hat. O Rei’s performance brought prestige to this Mexican stadium. Sixteen years later, another football phenomenon, Diego Armando Maradona, was also crowned champion. In 2026, the Azteca will host at least a few games again.
Pelé was generous with Mexico. In 1975 he played again in Mexico with Santos in a friendly tournament in Guadalajara. He met the country’s most senior personalities such as Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, then President of Televisa, and Mario Moreno, Cantinflas. Back in 2011, he attended the inauguration of Santos Stadium (the one in Laguna de Torreón) as a guest of honor and was later inducted as a great player into the world’s only football hall of fame, based in Pachuca.
“Of all the trips in my career, everyone asks me: which is the best, which did you enjoy the most? A country I can’t forget because of the love, the attention they showed me and the way they treated me, I’ll say it again, was Mexico,” Pelé said in a video released in 2020 published by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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