THE LEGENDARY Pele was paid a whopping $120,000 to tie his laces at the 1970 World Cup amid a bitter row between Adidas and Puma.
The world of football is in mourning after it was announced yesterday that the Pele had passed away aged 82 in his homeland.
The icon, who will be laid to rest in a “virtual cemetery”, had been receiving treatment for a tumour in his colon but stopped responding to care.
However on Thursday evening the news broke that the greatest player in history has sadly passed away due to multiple organ failure as a result of his cancer.
Nicknamed The King, Pele won three World Cups with Brazil between 1958 and 1970, the only player in football history to achieve the feat.
His amazing haul of 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which included friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record.
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He also scored a remarkable 77 goals in 92 games for the national team – a record equalled by Neymar at the recent World Cup.
The current Brazilian No.10 has led the huge outpouring of tributes to the late, great superstar along with modern day greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
And since then a host of heartwarming, glorious and magical stories have been revealed about Pele’s incredible career.
Now footage of a remarkable incident from the World Cup quarter-final against Peru in 1970 has resurfaced which shows the ex-forward bending down to tie his shoelaces after being paid $120,000 – worth around £50,000 in 1970 exchange rates – by boot manufacturers Puma.
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Brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler went into the shoe manufacturing business together in the 1920s but a bitter family feud led to them going their separate ways in the 1940s.
That led Adolf to create Adidas and Rudolf to set up Puma as the siblings battled to secure top names to market their brands.
Pele had already shot to stardom after winning the 1958 World Cup and it was decided by the brothers that he would be too expensive to sign up for endorsements, an agreement that was dubbed the “Pele Pact”.
But that all changed in 1970 when Puma offered the Brazilian $120,000 to wear their boots – as long as he asked the referee for some time to bend down and tie his laces before kick-off.
They even went as far as to pay the cameraman to zoom in as Pele carried out the act.
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Adolf Dassler and Adidas were left furious at Puma’s antics – although his brother will hardly have cared as he went on to register record annual sales.
And Pele, with his nice earner too hand, went on to fire Brazil to World Cup glory again for a third time.
Pele made his debut for his local team Santos aged just 15 and won his first cap for the Brazil national team at 16.
He won the World Cup in 1958 aged just 17, and then won it again in 1962 and 1970.
The South American superstar racked up 643 goals in 659 appearances for club side Santos across his 18-year spell.
He also played for the New York Cosmos and retired in 1977, in an exhibition match between the Cosmos and Santos.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
