WHEN FOURFOURTWO MET PELE in Paris
FFT grabbed a quick chat with the Brazil legend about the world’s top stars
Fourfourtwo travelled to France to meet Pele and Kylian Mbappe at an exclusive Paris event, and we even got the chance to speak to the Brazilian great.
Last summer, Mbappe followed Pele by becoming only the second teenager in history to score in a World Cup final, and the French forward was clearly in awe of the 78-year-old as they met for the first time.
“I keep touching him to make sure he’s real!” joked the Paris Saint-germain starlet as his proud family sat in the front row for the event at the swish Hotel Lutetia.
FFT also got the opportunity to have a quick chat with Pele ourselves, and found him in a friendly mood as we told him about the magazine’s 25th anniversary. He was interviewed for the cover of the magazine on his 70th birthday back in 2010.
“Hello to my friends from Fourfourtwo magazine – congratulations for the anniversary, good luck to you!” he smiled.
The former Santos and New York Cosmos marksman was soon talking us through some exclusive pictures from his career, which you can see on page 82, before we asked him to choose some of his favourite players since FFT launched in 1994.
Who would you choose as your favourite player of the last 25 years? [Smiles] Good question! Of the last 25 years? It’s very hard to choose just one! There has been Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo... Neymar is a player who inspires people, he has a great personality. There are a lot of very good players – players I’d like to play with myself, so it’s difficult to choose only one favourite!
What do you admire about Lionel Messi? I admire him because of the way he makes decisions when he makes the play. He thinks very quickly and his vision is unbelievable. I spoke with some people from Argentina, and said that the only problem with Messi is that he doesn’t play for the Brazilian national team! Are there any English players you’ve admired over the last 25 years? I admire a lot of English players – sometimes I prefer if I don’t name one, because it’s not fair on the others. But OK, you’re a journalist. If you give me five names of English players, I’ll pick two for you! Give me five names.
OK. Beckham, Rooney, Owen, Gerrard, Gascoigne. That’s very difficult! But I’ll say Beckham and Rooney. England have had a lot of good players, but I choose them because they helped the England team a lot.
What do you think of Mbappe? He has a Latin style of play. His strength is the way he changes his game, he’s unpredictable. Several players are good technically, but they’re predictable. Mbappe is a bit Brazilian – I’ve told him that it’s a shame he didn’t play for Santos, but there’s still time! Chris Flanagan
Hublot ambassador Pele was interviewed at a historic encounter with new ambassador Kylian Mbappe in Paris. To stay updated, follow @Hublot #Hublotlovesfootball