December 30, 2022

11:12

Mencius Melo – Amazon Agency

MANAUS – The greatest football player of all time, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the “King Pelé”, also took the field in Northern Brazil. The idol played four matches in Manaus, capital of Amazonas, and two in Belém do Pará. In the Para state capital, in one of the games, Pelé wore the blue shirt of Clube do Remo in a game against rival Paysandu Sport Club. In Manaus, Pelé played with the Brazilian national team jersey, in the inauguration of the Vivaldo Lima stadium, against a selected team from the state of Amazonas, before the 1970 World Cup.

For the president-elect of the Football Federation of the Amazon (FAF), Ednailson Rozenha, Pelé symbolizes an era and synthesizes the emotion and pride of a country. “Pelé is a Brazilian genius. The definitive love of an entire nation. Our country had the honor of seeing his talent on three occasions. Our homage to a very rare being who was born to be what he was: extraordinary”, praised the FAF president.

Pelé’s first time in Manaus was on August 9, 1968. The game was a friendly match against Nacional Fast Clube. The game took place in the Estádio da Colina, which was completely packed to see the “King of Football”. The score was 3-0 to Santos, with one goal by Pelé. The second match, also a friendly, was on August 11, 1968, against Nacional Futebol Clube. On that occasion, “Naça” was defeated 2-1, with one goal by Pelé.

Against Rio Negro

The curious detail is that Pelé said goodbye to Santos Futebol Clube, his favourite team, against a football team from the Amazon. In the 1974 Brasileirão, the king scored his last goal for the “Peixe da Vila Belmiro”, against Atlético Rio Negro Clube, from Amazonas, in a 3 to 0 victory. The Saints team made a point of remembering on their social networks. In the post, the alvinegro paulista paid tribute to the historic memory of that match. “Long live the greatest of all time!”, says the post.

In both passages through Belém, Pelé also scored goals. The first match was on April 29, 1965. On that occasion, Santos thrashed Remo by 9 to 4, in Baenão. In the game, the player came out of the tunnel wearing the shirt of Remo and carrying a bouquet of flowers given by the board of the Paraense club. Pelé was cheered on the field. The elegance of the king took the fans to delirium, at Baenão, and, despite the defeat, that night went down in the history of Para football.

The second time, in the Paraense capital, was on 6 August 1968. Three years after the first match, the “King” returned to play in Pará. The match was between Santos and Paysandu. The dispute was in Curuzu, the oldest stadium in Belém. The “Papão da Curuzu” opened the scoring but, in a short time, Santos tied the score and turned the game around. Final score: Santos 3-1 over Paysandu, with two goals by the “King of Football”.

Manaus was lucky

The radio broadcaster Valdir Correia tells that Pelé played four matches in Manaus. “The last one, with Santos’s shirt, was in 1972, for the national championship, now the Brazilian championship. At that time I was 14 years old and I worked in sports coverage for Radio Rio-Mar. The match was between Santos and Nacional. Santos won, I just don’t remember the score because it was a long time ago”, he recalled with good humour.

Valdir tells us that the atmosphere was not at all friendly and the Brazilian people did not believe in the national team for the 1974 World Cup. “It was the military regime and João Saldanha was openly left-wing. President Médici wanted Dadá Maravilha in the national team and João said that he didn’t line up the president’s ministers, so he wouldn’t accept that the president would line up his players. João, obviously, fell, Zagallo took over and Dadá went to the World Cup”, he recalled.

“The 1966 World Cup campaign was a flop and people didn’t put their faith in Saldanha’s team, which became Zagallo’s team. The match, in Manaus, was the last before Mexico. Here, the national team unravelled and won 4-1 against the team from Amazonas. The victory lifted the team’s spirits and the team left here confident to Mexico. I can say that Manaus and Amazonas were lucky for the Brazilian team that, in the end, won the World Cup”, he stated.

The journalist, sports commentator and fond of football, Dudu Monteiro de Paula, declared fan of Pelé, sent a video to the AMAZON AGENCY commenting on the life and work of the football genius. According to the journalist, the athlete’s talent and strength were different and drove him to be eternalized in history.

Watch the video in full: