Adeyinka Olaiya, Sao Paulo/
World-renowned king of football, Edson Arantes de Nascimento, popularly known as Pele, has revealed what he stands for in an interview on his 79th birthday anniversary yesterday.
Receiving African-Brazilian dignitaries at his residence on his birthday, the Legendary Brazilian Number 10 Shirt, bared his mind on the vexed issues of his colour and race. He said that he was happy to be an African-Brazilian but would not tolerate any form of racial discrimination from any part.
“I am a human being, a citizen of the world. I don’t have a colour or race. I have love, unity and oneness for the human race,” he said in his response to the several comments in the news media that Pele is not favouring Africans in all of his doings.
The football king who was born on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil, was given a befitting birthday ceremony by the Santos football club of Brazil, where he had played as a professional. The emblem of the club now carries a crown at the top which represents his majesty, King Pele of Football.
“I love African players. I am a fan of Jay-Jay Okocha, El Haji Diouf, Abedi Pele, and George Weah,” Pele once revealed while speaking on the talents of several African players and also the reasons why the above-listed names were among the hundred most significant footballers of all times that he compiled to celebrate FIFAS hundred years of football
Pelé who once led Santos football club to a friendly match in the old Zaire to stop the war described the experience as historic.
“They stopped the war to watch us play,” Pele said in his interview on the national news in Brazil.
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