– King Pele on Brazil winning the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games over the USA and other countries
On October 2 this year in Copenhagen, Denmark, the world was stunned when President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) IOC Jacques Rogge announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil had won the bid to host the 31st Olympiad in 2016.
The win was described by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as a victory not only for his country but for all of South America.
But for Edson Arantes do Nascimento, (King Pele) the man regarded as the greatest football player that ever lived, it was if he himself had won an Olympic gold medal.
King Pele is Brazil’s biggest sports icon.
He was voted the IOC’s Athlete of the Century and, after wrapping up a two-day visit to Guyana as special guest of honour at the opening of the 20th Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament, Pele spoke of his feelings now that Brazil will be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.
Born October 23, 1940, Pele came from one of the poorest areas in Sao Paulo, Brazil and it was football that brought the world’s most celebrated football player out of the slumps.
“You know, many people ask me, ‘Pele, why you never play in the Olympic Games,’ but listen, I never play the Olympics because as you know Santos in Brazil, it was my first club and I was 16-years-old then when I started playing professional football and then it was the law that you couldn’t be a professional player and play in the Olympics,” Pele said.
He noted, however, that now, the world governing body for football (FIFA) has changed the rules and countries are allowed three professional players to join their under-23 players at the Olympics.
“Each time I say it was always my desire to play in the Olympic Games. But I was a professional and now they allow three professional players and that victory is very important to me because all my life I say `Oh my God, Brazil never won the gold medal’, but if I was there of course they would have won,” he declared.
Brazil outshone some of the more favoured countries to win the bid including the city of Chicago, United States of America, which had a personal message from its President Barrack Obama who made the journey to Denmark to plea to the IOC to award the games to his city.
Pele said that when they got the vote over Obama and the USA, that made him even more overwhelmed and it was quit a tearful moment for him. He described it as the best feeling he ever had.
“Oh my gosh, Obama was there, Oprah was there, the King from Spain was there even top people Japan and this was fantastic and so for me it’s like I won the gold medal it was fantastic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pele did not limit his few moments with the media to just his country and the Olympics, he also offered words of encouragement to those who idolised him and many who tried to emulate his many moves on the field of play.
Pele’s father Dondinho do Nascimento, was a player for Fluminense Football Club in Brazil and, according to the 69 year-old, it was through the teachings and up bringing of his dad and the love for the game that propelled him to what he has accomplished.
“You know my father used to say to me, `Pele, first of all to be a great player, to be a great man, you must understand that football, is a gift of God, this he gives to you, but if you prepare your self, if you train, if you be in condition all the time, you will certainly be the best’”.
He added: “That I try to do. And you must always respect yourself and the people. You must respect your opponents.
“So this is what I say to the kids, and you have to be disciplined.”
One of the many caps Pele wears is that of an ambassador of the game for FIFA.
Progress in Guyana
The King of football is of the opinion that for the game to progress in Guyana, the administration has to be organised and must place emphasis on the youths.
“It’s important to work with the kids and sometimes exchange experiences with Brazil and with other coaches from South American and so on. I think they know that because we talk about that, they need to get more experience.
“I’ll tell you when I finish playing with Santos in `78 then I went to New York Cosmos. When we get there, soccer in the US was not so good.
Then we start to say to the people you must get foreigners and coaches from other parts of the football world to help you and today you can see the soccer in the US has improved. So I think you here can do the same.”
Pele had the honour of kicking the ball symbolizing the start of the Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament and he said the event made him rewind the years to when he was just 12-years-old.
“It was the same; everything looked the same, the people the band and everything. Right away this I remembered when I saw the little children coming out with the team. Yea my team was called the Baquinho. I remember well because we won the tournament,” Pele said.
