Pele and L’Équipe, a special relationship
Special edition in 2008 Team Legends was dedicated to the legendary number 10. Jacques Ferran, the former head of the football department, returned to the special relationship that Pele had with our daily lives. “ It was an autumn afternoon in 1959 or 1960 The team? I was in the office when the news anchor came in and told me that a young black guy had been sitting in the waiting room for a while and wanted to see him. He said that it was Pele who came to us unhurriedly and alone from Brazil, where he was a representative, to offer us coffee packets. He seemed quiet, shy, carefree, this unaccompanied King. He kindly accompanied me to the office and followed my word without hesitation in the interview. »
It was almost sixty years ago, in another world. Endless friendlies (an average of thirty games per season with Santos) so that the master can spread his magic to the four corners of the planet. In May 1960, he took part in an international tournament organized by Racing at the former Parc des Princes. Santos, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Benfica are invited. For Jacques Ferran, “Then Pele is at the top of his game. » Our correspondent in Brazil, Alain Fontan a “dancing animal”Gabriel Hanot believes that only he can “be your partner”. Ferran writes that Pele when he wasn’t scoring unfathomable goals himself, he was exchanging never-ending balls with his beloved teammate Coutinho. »
Parc des Princes, May 15, 1981. Pele in front raises the trophy of the champion of the century. (Team)
Team destroys the relationship of his club and federation by wearing out his jewels with the pleasure of tours. However, Pele remains incomparable and knows how to remember it. On April 23, 1963, he scored a hat-trick against France in Colombo. Next day, Team title: France: 2, Pele: 3. Jacques Ferran, who discovered the phenomenon five years ago, was amazed by this nugget and recalled his 1958 revelation in 2008: “I didn’t trust Pele. No one expected such a phenomenon. We were still living in the burning memories of the wonderful and ill-fated Hungarian team of Puskas, Hidegkuti, Boszik, Kocs and the exploits of Fritz Walter and Rahn at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. […] No one doubted that there could be a more wonderful football player in the world than Alfredo Di Stefano. »
“He had been in L’Équipe two days before, he was awaited in the courtyard by the whole editorial staff and he didn’t know anyone among them. He saw me and ran to me for a friendly and confident abraço brasileiro.
On May 30, 1964, Ferran participated in the Cup of Nations at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. The Seleção beat England (5-1) and he writes: “God Pele was never so divine. He displayed the full range of his incredible assets for ninety minutes. And they didn’t turn the British into anything frozen and stunned.” he will be the world champion in two years.
A few days after this recital, Pele and Brazil fight against Argentina (0-3). 42 years before Zinedine Zidane, he sent a header (unauthorized) to his direct opponent Mesiano. Ferran says: “Two Peles in five days: the victorious, untouchable god who overthrew England and the scheming and merciless devil who allowed Argentina to win. Just as there are two Brazilians, there are two Pelés, those of the Copacabana skyscrapers and those of the miserable favelas, and just as there are two Brazilian soccer balls, there are soccer balls of sun and shade. »
Pele was surrounded by Jacques Thibert and Gérard Ernault, journalists from L’Équipe, in Paris on May 14, 1981. (Team)
History and our magazine will remember the incomparable champion. Jacques Ferran, saves “As a final image, Pele in a white tuxedo came to receive the trophy of the champion of the century in Paris on May 15, 1981, after a vote organized by twenty newspapers from all over the world. Magazine Team. He died two days ago team, He was waiting for the entire editorial team, whom he did not know, in the yard. Seeing me, he ran towards me for a friendly and confident abraço brasileiro, as if I had found the child of Hindas.The Swedish city where Brazil set up its base camp during the 1958 World Cup. The time when Pele was not yet an adult and football was still a game.
