Pele urges Scots to keep the faith!
PELE has urged the Tartan Army to keep believing because Scotland’s time will come.
The man who is arguably the greatest-ever footballer watched the Dark Blues and Brazil kick-off the 1998 World Cup Finals in France, little realising it would be the start of a long exile for the country from major tournament Finals.
Pele has retained a soft spot for Scotland for the past 50 years, since appearing at Hampden Park in a 1-1 draw in the build-up to the 1966 World Cup Finals.
He was back in Glasgow on Friday night for a gala dinner, part of the proceeds from which are going to charity.
And he was in reflective mood when he looked back to France 98, when Craig Brown’s side went down narrowly to his homeland.
“That is football – sometimes you win but sometimes you don’t,” he said, having earlier gone on record praising Scots fans for partying like Brazilians. “Even for Brazil, this is the case. “Before I came over to Scotland, I was talking about this with a friend of mine.
“We have won five World Cups – but we have also lost two in our own country.
“In 1950, when I was just 10 years old, I saw my father cry and I asked him why.
“He said it was because Brazil had lost the World Cup Final (going down to fierce rivals Uruguay in front of a crowd of 200,000 at the Maracana Stadium).
“And the last time (when hosts Brazil were thumped 7-1 in the 2014 semi-final by Germany) I was disappointed.
“But I made sure not to cry because I did not want my son to see me cry the same way I had seen my father.
“That is football, that is life. You have to keep believing.”