A LONG-RUNNING spat with Diego Maradona, ham acting in Escape to Victory and even adverts for Viagra.
Ask anyone under the age of 50 what they actually remember about Pele and these are the likely themes.
Not that we weren’t fully aware of his majesty as a player.
Anybody with even a passing knowledge of football knows about that iconic No 10 shirt.
About Pele’s breakthrough as a 17-year-old World Cup winner in 1958, his duel with Bobby Moore — and that save from Gordon Banks when Brazil met England at the 1970 World Cup.
Plus Pele’s opener in the final against Italy in the Azteca Stadium, a glorious peak for the most famous of football nations.
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His name was so synonymous with greatness that there have been several ‘white Peles’ — Zico, Colin Harvey and Wayne Rooney.
The trend tells us ‘Pele’ is a singular watchword for Godliness in the game.
There was so much mystique surrounding Pele’s legend as a player — but then there was Pele the man, who despite his rather extraordinary aura, was certainly no roped-off recluse.
Pele was never super rich and, as a result, it was not unusual to see him on the corporate trail.
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He didn’t even draw the line at lending his name to little blue pills for erectile dysfunction — advertising them with the line, ‘Go to your doctor, I would.’
Famously in our trade, Pele was a sponsors’ dream who was willing to say pretty much whatever you wanted him to at press events. He’d always tell you England would win the next major tournament.
And he’d tell you whichever player was flavour of the month — David Beckham, Rooney or Harry Kane — would win the Ballon d’Or. A genial old gent, Pele would never seem to have a bad word to say about anyone — except Maradona.
Before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo emerged, Pele and Maradona were out on their own in the debate over who was the greatest footballer of all time.
After Maradona played such a dominant role in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup victory — in Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium, like Pele’s finest hour — the Brazilian suddenly had a genuine rival for his crown as the finest player in history.
And there was little love lost between the pair, with Maradona usually the poisonous protagonist.
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At various times, both men recognised the greatness of the other but there was often a barb, with Maradona once chastising Pele for supposedly allowing his former team-mate Garrincha to die in poverty.
Pele — outspoken about drug abuse in the game — often responded that he would not criticise Maradona when he was ‘ill’ due to substance abuse.
And following the Argentine’s death in 2020, Pele even said: “One day we’ll kick a ball together in the sky above.”
The Brazilian was certainly the more gallant of the two.
And to those of us who never saw him play live, Pele had a saintly glow, as if his No 10 shirt should have come with a halo.
Yet in an era when legalised violence was very much a part of football, Pele could give as good as he got.
Jimmy Greaves, an expert teller of anecdotes, had a wonderful ability to humanise the Gods of the game when I was ghostwriter for his column.
He told a gem of a story about Pele from the Little World Cup, a four-team tournament in 1964 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian FA.
Greaves and the rest of the England squad, who were due to play Portugal the next day, were in the stadium in Sao Paulo watching Pele’s Brazil take on Argentina.
Pele was being man-marked by muscular defender Jose Mesiano and after one kick too many from the Argentine, Pele leapt several feet in the air and floored his antagonist with a head-butt.
Greaves recalled the incident starting a near riot, with England players fearing for their safety, but the ref missed the flashpoint.
Despite getting off scot-free, Pele had an ineffective match and Argentina ran out 3-0 winners.
It was shocking to hear of Pele’s violent side and almost as surprising to be told that he’d ever had a poor game.
For those of us a generation or so younger than Pele, there were two regular sightings of him on television — frequent replays of his 1970 World Cup highlights reel and then the war movie Escape to Victory.
No Christmas was complete without a rerun of this classic 1981 film, with cast including Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Bobby Moore, as well as Pele himself.
The movie is about a match between an allied prisoner of war team and a German army side — a thrilling 4-4 draw in which Pele’s character, Corporal Luis Fernandez, scores a spectacular overhead bicycle kick.
Before the match, Caine — player-manager of the POW XI — gives a detailed team talk at his blackboard of the passing game he wants his men to employ.
But Pele grabs the chalk and illustrates how he intends to dribble around the entire Nazi team and score a solo goal.
There was never any chance of him winning an Oscar for that performance — but his greatness on the football pitch was never in doubt.
And you didn’t need to have seen him play for real to understand that.
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