Pelé at the 1970 World Cup: the memories beyond the goals
Every four years, strikers from many countries converge on this ultimate celebration of football: the World Cup. For many, this represents the pinnacle of their career to date, the chance to compete against the best and make history. And each World Cup features a striker forever associated with that competition. often a particular goal that lives on in collective memories.
Step back to 1962 and we see Garrincha scoring a blistering shot against England in the quarter-finals. 1966 sees an exhausted Geoff Hurst rushing towards goal before dropping a piledriver past Hans Tilkowski - a shot he would later admit was hit just as hard as he was so if he probably missed it would take time to recover the ball.
In 1974, Gerd Muller shows his predatory instincts to run on a penny and cause grief to the Dutch. Four years later, Mario Kempes bursts into the Dutch defence, puffy hair behind him. The list is long: Paolo Rossi in 1982 against Brazil; Diego Maradona in 1986 against England; Roberto Baggio in 1990 against Czechoslovakia.
What they all have in common is that they score goals that will be forever remembered from those respective tournaments and often the first thing you'll think of when someone mentions their name and the competition . If I just say the words 1998 and Zinedine Zidane, chances are your first thought is of his two goals in the final.
The above list has deliberately excluded a World Cup, the 1970 edition in Mexico. Yes this beautiful World Cup which was the first in color with the shimmering heat haze and the crackling comments. And if you play the word association game one more time and ask someone what comes to mind first when you mention this competition, the likely answer is Brazil.
Indeed, if you then ask them to name a player from this team, there is a good chance that they will say Pelé. Because while the Brazilian team that won the tournament was arguably the greatest national team ever (Hungary 1954 and Netherlands 1974 might like to debate that), one player still managed to stand out of such an illustrious company.
How good of a striker was Pelé? Well, let's start with 501 goals in 493 appearances for Santos between 1956 and 1974 - so yes, averaging one goal per game for 18 years. Ah, but I hear you say, "it's in the Brazilian league, which is surely not at the same level as the European leagues?" It's debatable, especially given the number of world-class footballers in the competition at the time.
Then consider Pelé's international record of 77 goals in 92 games. That includes playing in four world championships...
Every four years, strikers from many countries converge on this ultimate celebration of football: the World Cup. For many, this represents the pinnacle of their career to date, the chance to compete against the best and make history. And each World Cup features a striker forever associated with that competition. often a particular goal that lives on in collective memories.
Step back to 1962 and we see Garrincha scoring a blistering shot against England in the quarter-finals. 1966 sees an exhausted Geoff Hurst rushing towards goal before dropping a piledriver past Hans Tilkowski - a shot he would later admit was hit just as hard as he was so if he probably missed it would take time to recover the ball.
In 1974, Gerd Muller shows his predatory instincts to run on a penny and cause grief to the Dutch. Four years later, Mario Kempes bursts into the Dutch defence, puffy hair behind him. The list is long: Paolo Rossi in 1982 against Brazil; Diego Maradona in 1986 against England; Roberto Baggio in 1990 against Czechoslovakia.
What they all have in common is that they score goals that will be forever remembered from those respective tournaments and often the first thing you'll think of when someone mentions their name and the competition . If I just say the words 1998 and Zinedine Zidane, chances are your first thought is of his two goals in the final.
The above list has deliberately excluded a World Cup, the 1970 edition in Mexico. Yes this beautiful World Cup which was the first in color with the shimmering heat haze and the crackling comments. And if you play the word association game one more time and ask someone what comes to mind first when you mention this competition, the likely answer is Brazil.
Indeed, if you then ask them to name a player from this team, there is a good chance that they will say Pelé. Because while the Brazilian team that won the tournament was arguably the greatest national team ever (Hungary 1954 and Netherlands 1974 might like to debate that), one player still managed to stand out of such an illustrious company.
How good of a striker was Pelé? Well, let's start with 501 goals in 493 appearances for Santos between 1956 and 1974 - so yes, averaging one goal per game for 18 years. Ah, but I hear you say, "it's in the Brazilian league, which is surely not at the same level as the European leagues?" It's debatable, especially given the number of world-class footballers in the competition at the time.
Then consider Pelé's international record of 77 goals in 92 games. That includes playing in four world championships...
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