Amazingly nobody has yet mentioned the passing of Pele. Brazil think he is worth three days worth of national mourning - that's two more than the Queen got!
Would just like to say that for me, the greatest player ever to put on a pair of football boots. It's one thing saying: "ah yeh but he was another generation", but he was just something else. He had it all like no other player who has verged towards iconic status - including two feet that could play football. And he played it honourably and without any ego or delusions of grandeur. A team player.
I first saw him in the 1966 World Cup on Black and White TV when the Hungarians, and then the Portuguese, decided that the only way to stop him was to kick the sh!t out of him, in the days when you didn't get booked or sent off for doing so. He left the competition injured and Brazil were eliminated at the Group stages. But as a 13 year old I can also be ever grateful that I saw the best of him in the 1970 World Cup with what for me was the greatest team ever to win it. Check out anything you can around this era, he did some amazing things.
Apparently learned many of his ball skills as a kid training with oranges because he didn't have a ball.
So for me - in terms of technical skills, only Cruyff and Best ever came anywhere near him. Whilst the achievements of Beckenbauer, Moore, Maradona, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo teeter on the edge of iconic - Beckenbauer and Moore were defenders and skills were basic, and the others are/were largely one-footed players - all their skills in the one foot.
So RIP Pele - the greatest player ever, and ever likely, to have played the game.
Pele RIP
Moderators: Nick Sopowski, ClubAdmin
Re: Pele RIP
Yes, very sad news.
I was six in 1970 so don't really remember Pele in a Brazil shirt. I remembering him playing in the US during mid seventies.
What I do remember was Pele the Ambassador, a much loved and respected person who tried to unite the world through football.
RIP Pele
I was six in 1970 so don't really remember Pele in a Brazil shirt. I remembering him playing in the US during mid seventies.
What I do remember was Pele the Ambassador, a much loved and respected person who tried to unite the world through football.
RIP Pele
Re: Pele RIP
I remember hearing the story of one of his managers being asked why Brazil could never find a good goalkeeper and he replied saying that his best one had to wear the number 10 shirt!