Pele Football Club is celebrating their 36th anniversary today.
The club was officially launched on this day in 1971 the same day that the great Brazilian star and world renowned player “King Pele” as he is known and after whom the club was named announced his retirement from football.
Its founder Lennox Arthur, was just 20-years-old at the time.
According to Arthur, the team, which blossomed from the Albouystown YMCA, consisted of mainly U-18 players and began playing competitively using the name Pele F.C even before the official launching of the club.
The club’s first President was Cecil Mc Kenzie and first captain Monty Wilson.
Despite the young team, Pele F.C shocked the football public when in their first official senior competition – the 1971 FA Cup Knock Out tournament – they reached the final.
The final, which was played early in 1972, saw the fledgling Pele side losing 0-1 to Santos Football Club.
It was a bitter sweet event for Arthur who himself was one of six senior national players in the Santos F.C line up that won the game against his newly formed club.
Arthur later admitted to being substituted because he was coaching his young charges while playing against them.
In 1972, having played in the Bowl League and placing third, Pele F.C was promoted to the first division.
It is a status they have never relinquished and up to today they remain the only team from that era never to have been relegated to the second division.
Following another runner up position in the 1973 league, they began to assert themselves and from 1974 the club dominated local football for the rest of the seventies.
They won every tournament held a feat no other team was able to do.
They also won the coveted league title three years in a row from 1974-76 inclusive.
Some of the great players of that era included Terry Nichols, Vibert “Durdy” Butts, Keith Niles, Gregory “PP” Stewart, Keith Layne, Wendell “Figuero” Sandiford, Patrick “Labba” Barton and Denzil “Honky Brains” Thompson.
In 1976, the club provided the Guyana national senior team with eight players, including two goal-keepers in Sandiford and Thompson. Pele F.C continued its success in local football during the eighties winning all the competitions which existed in that era. They dominated the rivalry with Santos F.C their nemesis in the annual “Brazilian Cup” played only by the two teams in honor of the great `King’ Pele.
Stars of the 80’s included Gordon “Ultimate Warrior” Braithwaite, Terrence Archer, Ashton “Chucker” Taylor (deceased), Herbert Pellew, Anthony Williams, Donald Joseph, young Aubrey and Oswald “Ossie” Taylor.
The 90’s also produced successful Pele F.C teams coached by the late (Ashton) Taylor and Peter Gulliver.
Those teams were able to capture the coveted national Champion of Champions tournaments on a few occasions with such players as Lerome Bailey, Lyndon “Pin Head” Layne, Shawn Collins, Marc “Pone Head” Joseph, Rawle “Overseas” Jones, Carey”747” Jacques and Omali Nassey. However, following back-to-back Georgetown Football League titles in ’95 and ’96, Pele F.C is yet to win a league tournament.
Despite their league disappointment, the club has won every major knockout tournament recently held in local football with the exception of the Kashif and Shanghai year-end extravaganza although they reached the final on two occasions.
The wins include back-to-back President Cup triumphs in 2005 and 2006 along with the coveted Nations Cup in 2006; West Demerara Association Sweet 16 in 2004; Mayor’s Cup in 2003 and 2005 and Fruta Conquerors 2006 tournament.
With back-to-back second place finishes in the GFA league in 2006 and 2007, the elusive league title is not too far away.
Most recently in February this year, Pele F.C won the inaugural GFA Banks Premium Beer Knock Out tournament. Current players of merit include captain Dirk Archer, Travis Grant, Solomon Austin, Shemroy Arthur and Troy Kellman.
Currently Pele F.C has four senior national team members in Nigel “Powers” Codrington, Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson, Konata “Nats” Manning and Calvin Shepard. They all currently ply their trade in the Trinidad & Tobago semi-pro league.
