RIO DE JANEIRO: It’s the day of the last World Cup finale in Brazil. Pele is nine years old. Back then, he’s just Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Edson has been playing outside. He rushes into his house and notices his father is crying. Brazil has just lost to Uruguay at its sacred Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The nation has been thrown into mourning.
”Eight years later in the World Cup in Sweden I saw my father cry again but with happiness because we won the World Cup,” Pele said on Saturday, the eve of the final’s return after 64 years to the Maracana.
With that first World Cup triumph in Stockholm in 1958 (the 17-year-old Pele scored twice in the final), a footballer and a team of Brazilians began a World Cup legacy that captured five titles, three of them for the man now known as Pele. No team or player can match that record.
On Sunday, Pele, now 73, was to watch the final at the Maracana, one of 74,000 people – around 100,000 less than crammed into the arena in 1950 – at one of sport’s most glorious events. Sadly for him and 200 million others, Brazil won’t be there, but the man revered for 50 years as the world’s best player, the favourite son of the most celebrated team, will be.
Pele picked four teams to do well at this World Cup: finalists Germany and Argentina, Brazil and Spain. Spain, the defending champions, were knocked out in the first round.
”I missed on Spain but I think everyone missed.”
For Pele, Germany are the best team and should win the World Cup, and he insisted his opinion was not based on Brazil’s fierce rivalry with Argentina and the possibility that they could lift the trophy at Brazil’s Maracana. (AP)