Pele.

When you see your heroes pass away it reminds you that we are all here for a brief moment. I met Pele at a lunch in London a few years ago, shook his hand for a brief moment. He looked straight at me with eyes that had seen so much. For me his counterpart was the incredible English Goalkeeper Gordon Banks whose hand I also shook in a chance meeting in High Street Kensington in 2015.

Together they created what was known as the greatest save ever. The scene was the first half of England v Brazil in Mexico City, the 1970 World Cup. The Brazilian winger Jairzhino crossed the ball, Pele in yellow rose and down headed the ball perfectly behind Banks in blue towards the goal. Miraculously Banks arched his body backwards and whipped like whiplash his hand under the ball and over the crossbar, thereby avoiding the perfect goal. The yellow and blue reminded me of sunshine days with sky and birthed such excitement in me that I’ll never forget.

You can watch the save on the internet and every time I see it I’m convinced the ball is going into the net. Banks died in 2019 and was virtually of equal age as Pele who died today. The Heaven Eleven now have the best team and without exaggeration we will never see the likes of this again.

I guess that when we lose our heroes a little part of us dies with them. It is sad yet I look forward to shaking hands with them again this time together. In the end both men were beaten by cancer Banks of the Kidney and Pele colon. The match of life does end, the final whistle is blown, the players leave the field. God bless them both and I look forward to watching them play one day again in their Stadium of Light. RIP Pele.