June 29 – Pele Announces His Arrival

WAY back before he became the face of male ‘problems’ in the bedroom and made useless predictions like “Russians will not win anything in football before the Brazilians win something in ice hockey”, Pele was a fresh-faced teenager about to dazzle the world by letting his feet do the talking. Today in 1958 he heralded his arrival with a match-winning performance in the World Cup final, scoring two goals as a 17-year old as Brazil won their first ever World Cup.

The World Cup had gone Scandinavian in ’58 as Sweden played host the biggest tournament yet, as the 55 nations were whittled down in the qualifying rounds to 16 sides that contested the first competition to be televised internationally. Remarkably this included all UK nations for the first, and thanks largely to Wales, only ever time.

Brazil, still smarting from the loss in the 1950 final were desperate to win their first ever World Cup. Leading the line for the Selecao was the bendy-legged womaniser Garrincha who was the best player in the world at the time. Coming through ranks was another prodigious talent, a 17-year old by the name of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or Pele to you and me. Brazil coach Vincente Feola was reluctant to throw his boy in from the start, but thanks mainly to the insistence of his squad he included him in their third match against the Soviet Union.

It was in the knockout phase that the boy wonder really came of age. After scoring the only goal in the quarter-final win over Wales, he bagged a hat-trick in the semi against a French side lead by Just Fontaine who bagged a record 13 goals in the tournament, leading the Brazilians to a final against the hosts Sweden.

At 17 years and 249 days Pele was the youngest player to ever appear in a World Cup final, and scored two classy goals as the Brazilians put to bed their World Cup jinx, defeating the Swedes 5-2. At the final whistle the teenager collapsed on the pitch before emerging in tears to celebrate with his teammates and pick up the trophy.

See Pele’s bow on the biggest stage of all below and just for a treat, we’ll bring you another tale of England woe tomorrow.