Senator Todd Young and I are sitting in a bar in Bargersville, pounding the table with the greatest football player of all time. We’re pounding the table for Pelé.
It’s a strange but true story, like so many stories about Pelé, the Brazilian legend died Thursday at the age of 82.
Like the story of a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s, when the warring sides agreed to stop killing each other for 48 hours because Pelé was in town for an exhibition. Both sides laid down their weapons to watch him play. When Pelé left, everyone returned to the smallest task: fighting for the future of their country.
As, the story of Pelé’s visit to Washington DC in 1982, when a man introduced himself as follows: “My name is Ronald Reagan, I am the president of the United States of America. But you don’t need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pelé is.”
For example, the story of Pelé making his professional debut in Brazil at age 15 and scoring a goal in his first match, then leading the league in scoring the following season, at age 16. He made his debut for the Brazilian national team at age 16. , and scored in his first match.
Like the story of Pele who became the youngest player in a World Cup final in 1958, but scored twice as Brazil beat Sweden.
Senator Young and I are sitting at the Taxman Brewing Company in Bargersville on a Sunday morning, watching the 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina, and the topic turns to Pelé. Sit long enough watching a football game and the subject will eventually find its way there.
Reaction: Mbappé, Neymar, President Biden, Obama among those who pay tribute to Pelé
Doyel: Watch the World Cup with Senator Todd Young, whose career began with soccer
In many sports, there is a debate about the greatest player of all time. Run through sports in your head. You’ll have an opinion, like Peyton Manning in football, but someone else will suggest Jim Brown or Jerry Rice or whatever, and maybe they’re right. Who really knows? Same with baseball (Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, your choice here), basketball (Michael, Wilt, etc.), golf (Tiger, Jack, etc.), tennis (Serena, Martina, etc.) And so on.
In football, there is no debate. It’s Pele. In recent years, people have argued over Ronaldo versus Messi, but only for the current primacy. All the time? There is only Pelé.
The reason is as obvious as his career statistics, with records dating back half a century or more later: three world championship titles, 1,283 career goals in world football, 92 hat tricks, the youngest World Cup winner and goalscorer (17 years, 249 days).
The reason is as subtle as Senator Todd Young and I sitting at Taxman, banging the table for Pele.
Victory !
Book, book.
Victory !
Book, book.
This comes from the 1981 film Victory, set during World War II, with Allied prisoners of war in Germany playing a game against German soldiers. Pelé was one of the Allied prisoners (Michael Caine was the coach and Sylvester Stallone the goalkeeper).
In one of the greatest scenes of all time, and I say that as a kid who grew up in the 1970s loving soccer, in part because the New York Cosmos of the NASL signed this Pelé’s player in 1975, Pelé is outside the penalty area. , waiting for a perfect cross from English football legend Bobby Moore (!!!). The ball floats towards Pelé in slow motion as one defender, then another, jumps unsuccessfully to head the ball away. Pelé, with his back to the goal, rises and performs a half-flip that most of us had never seen in 1981, somersaulting in the air as he scored a goal behind the back of the next one.
The crowd, including the oppressive German major played by Max von Sydow, rejoices, and soon they are chanting for Pelé and for the Allied soldiers:
Victory !
Book, book.
Victory !
Book, book.
Like I said, one of the greatest scenes of all time. This is not up for discussion.
While watching this movie on HBO in Carmel, 9-year-old Todd Young had the same idea as 11-year-old me in Oxford, Mississippi. We both went out to our backyard and threw a soccer ball in the air, kicking it half way around, trying to cycle it into the imaginary net behind us.
Young would become Carmel’s star, helping the Greyhounds reach the state title game in 1989, then played for the United States Naval Academy. He went into the Navy to play football, and only to play football, unwittingly launching a career that took him to the U.S. Senate. Pelé contributed to this.
As for me, I went to high school in Macon, Georgia, and although I never successfully completed a bicycle kick to score a goal, one, I was a sweeper; secondly, I wasn’t very good – I managed a bicycle kick once to clear a ball out of danger. Pele did that.
That’s how fascinated I was with Pelé at that time: I became a New York Cosmos fan, all the way to Mississippi, and my dad took me to a Cosmos game against the Memphis Rogues. Pelé was retired by then, but we saw Giorgio Chinaglia, a name I hadn’t thought of until now for 40 years, but a name I just spelled correctly off the top of my head.
Pelé did it too.
So here we are sitting at the IRS office in Bargersville, Senator Young and I, two middle-aged guys from the Midwest expressing our love for a dying Brazilian soccer player by banging on the table. The world today expresses its love for Pelé, mourning the greatest love of all time, telling strange but true stories, like so many stories about Pelé.
Like that of his last match, a 1977 exhibition between the Cosmos and Pelé’s longtime Brazilian team, Santos. Pelé was three weeks shy of turning 37, an old man by football standards, but after scoring the No. 1 career goal at 15, he scored No. 1,283 that day at nearly 37 years. It was a 30-yard free kick in the first half. for Santos, after which Pelé changed teams and played the second half for the Cosmos. More than 77,000 fans were at Giants Stadium and the game was televised around the world.
It was raining for Pelé’s last match and a Brazilian newspaper ran the headline: “Even the sky was crying.”
It really happened. The same goes for the rain falling outside my window right now.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or to www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
