When Pele was paid today’s equivalent of $1 million just to tie his laces during a FIFA World Cup Match
This incident will always be written in the history books as an example of how great a player can be.
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Pele with the three World Cup trophies.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known to us as Pele, was by far the greatest of his generation and every sporting company and brand wanted to sponsor him. So was the case with Adidas and Puma, which were owned by two brothers, Adolf Dassler and Rudolf Dassler, respectively, and they wanted Pele to wear their boots at the 1970 World Cup.
Puma made a “Pele Pact” with Adidas, which meant neither company would go for him since his market value was astronomical. But Puma broke the pact in Mexico as they astonishingly paid him $120,000, which is today’s equivalent of $1 million, precisely $921,680.41, just to tie his laces during a 1970 World Cup match. There was already a lot of feud between the brothers, and this incident ignited enmity and started the intense brand deal war.
Puma wanted Pele, who was the face of football during that time to advertise their boots, and they could not find any bigger stage than the World Cup. This incident was at the quarter-final matchup against Peru at the 1970 FIFA World Cup. This will always be written in the history books as an example of how great a player can be. A brand just offered him such a huge figure just for bending down deliberately to tie his shoelaces before the start of the match.
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The legacy of Pele will be taught over generations to come
The Brazilian great passed away on December 29, night fighting cancer at the age of 82, at the Albert Einstein Hospital, in Sao Paulo. He is the only player to win three World Cup trophies and is still Brazil’s all-time top goal scorer, with 77 goals in 92 matches after 50 years. In 1958 a 17-year-old did the unthinkable by scoring a brace to beat Sweden and became the youngest player to score a goal in the World Cup final.
He got his hands on the trophy again in 1962. Then in 1970; he scored the opening goal in the 4-1 win against Italy to announce himself as the greatest in the history of the competition. He scored a total of 12 goals in 14 World Cup matches, providing ten assists, which is the most by any player in the history of the World Cup, even after 52 years.
He is still regarded as the highest scorer of the sport if all his unofficial goals are considered. It took 50 years for a player to cross him as Cristiano Ronaldo finally broke his official goal-scored record. During his career, he scored 1,281 goals in 1,363 games for club and country and retired from football in 1977.
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Soumyadeep Mondal
(882 Articles Published)