In a text written before the 1958 World Cup, the columnist made prophecies about the 17-year-old player
On June 24, 1958, the team beat France 5-2, in Stockholm, Sweden, and secured a place in the World Cup final against the home team. At 17 years old, Pelé scored three goals in the second half and massacred the opponents who, until that point, had the best attack in the competition and Brazil, the least leaky defense. After the match, the European press started calling number ten the “King”.
However, a little known fact is that on March 8 of the same year Nelson Rodrigues wrote a chronicle in “Manchete Esportiva” entitled “Pele’s royaltyThe journalist was excited about the boy’s performance in the match in which Santos beat América-RJ, at Maracanã, 5-3, on February 26. The future King found the net four times and was chosen as character of the week by Nelson Rodrigues.
In “Memória da Pan”, I highlight excerpts from this monumental chronicle that had a prophetic tone: “After the América x Santos game, it would be a crime not to make Pelé my character of the week. A great figure, who my brother Albert Laurence calls ‘the Domingos da Guia of the attack’. I look at Pelé’s file and I’m shocked: 17 years! There are certain ages that are aberrant, unlikely. One of them is Pelé. I, being over 40, have a hard time believing that anyone could be 17, ever. Well: true boy, my character is on the field with one of those irresistible and fatal authorities. He would say he was a king, I don’t know if Lear, Emperor Jones, or Ethiopian. Racially perfect, invisible cloaks seem to hang from his chest. (…).”
Next, Nelson Rodrigues uses the word “royalty”: “(…) What we call royalty is, above all, a state of soul. And Pelé has a considerable advantage over the other players: he feels like a king, from head to toe. When he catches the ball and dribbles past an opponent, it’s like someone shooing away an ignorant and lousy commoner. (…) Look what he did, the other day, in the aforementioned América x Santos. He scored, and almost always through personal effort, four goals in Pompéia. Alone, he finished the match, finished América, monopolized the score. Beside me, a sick American was screaming: ‘Go play nice like that and the devil carries you!’. (…)”
Finally, the Pernambuco columnist made a projection about Pelé in the upcoming World Cup: “(…) In Sweden he will not tremble at anyone. You have to look at the Hungarians, the English and the Russians from top to bottom. You will not be inferior to anyone. And it is this manly and even insolent attitude that we need. Yes, friends: I bet my head that Pelé will think all of our opponents are stilts. (…) With Pelé on the team, and others like him, no one will go to Sweden with the soul of mongrels. The others will tremble before us.”
It is worth remembering that, in Sweden, Pelé was not intimidated: he scored six goals, which defeated the Welsh, French and Swedes. As Nelson Rodrigues would say, with the future King, Brazil would never again be a “mutt” in football.
*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Jovem Pan.
