Pele an instant worldie
THE world first met a teenager called Edson Arantes do Nascimento on June 15, 1958
Better known as Pele, he was called upon to save Brazil’s World Cup – at the age of just 17 years and 249 days.
Pele remembered seeing his father cry for the first time after Brazil were beaten by Uruguay in the 1950 final in front of a home crowd of around 200,000 – and a nation mourned with him.
Eight years later, Pele’s dad heard on the radio that his son would be heading to Sweden for the first
World Cup to be screened globally on TV.
Pele missed the 3-0 thumping of Austria and a goalless draw against England with a knee injury, but was fit to play in the crucial match against Olympic champions – and pre-tournament favourites – Russia.
Beat them and Brazil were through to the quarter-finals, lose and they went into a play-off.
Pele was in the starting XI and, within two minutes of his World Cup debut, he had made an impression, striking the Russian woodwork.
He went on to lay on the second goal for Vava in a 2-0 win that took Brazil through to the last eight, where they faced Wales.
The match was won by what Pele would later call “probably the most unforgettable goal of my career”.
Looking for a team-mate to pass to seemed the only option when Pele got the ball with his back to goal around the penalty spot.
Instead, Pele did it by himself, flicking the ball up with the outside of his right boot and then turning to smack a shot into the bottom corner.
That won the match for Brazil and Pele was their matchwinner in the semi-final against France as well.
The scores were locked at 1-1 after 53 minutes, but 21 minutes later it was 4-1 – and Pele had a hat-trick.
In the final, Sweden took a fourthminute lead, but by half-time Brazil were 2-1 up.
And 10 minutes after the restart, Pele gave his team a two-goal cushion with a memorable strike.
He lifted the ball over the defender’s head with his right boot – and stuck it in the bottom corner.
Pele put the match beyond Sweden with Brazil’s fourth – a looping header – and they ran out 5-2 winners to lift the World Cup for the first time.