Yahoo News Happy 80th birthday, Pelé
THE GREATEST
Some big names in the world of football celebrate their birthday today. There’s Andoni Zubizarreta, who kept goal for the fine Athletic Bilbao side of the early 1980s, and lifted Big Cup with Barcelona in 1992. There’s Safe Hands Sander Westerveld, who kept goal for the middling Liverpool team of 2001, and lifted the Milk Cup with a hearty old-fashioned “hooray”. And then there’s Corporal Luis Fernández, who scored an 88th-minute equaliser for the Allies against Germany in 1943 before disappearing after a crowd invasion, never to be seen again. Shame, it was a really decent goal. An overhead kick. That lad could have been special.
Those lucky enough to have seen the mercurial Fernández in the flesh often say how similar his style was to Pelé’s. Coincidentally, the great Brazilian, better known to hipsters as Edson Arantes do Nascimento, also celebrates his birthday today. He’s 80, and the fifth person listed on the first celebrity birthday website The Fiver found, behind an Instachat star, a YouTube influencer, a Cosplayer and the guy from Deadpool 2. The Fiver doesn’t know what’s happening any more. The world’s left us behind. We’re confused and a little bit frightened. It’s cold. Poor Fiver’s a-cold.
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Well, he’s still No 1 on The Fiver’s list. Well, No 3, just behind Diego Maradona and Gerd Müller, as anyone who can see straight through Lionel Messi will agree, but you get the general gist. He scored a world-record 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, was the undisputed star of the 1958 and 1970 World Cups, and was so good to watch everyone even remembers his misses: the bodyswerve around the keeper, the envelope-pushing attempt from the halfway line, that save by Gordon Banks. He’s even got the best pass of all time on his CV, the absurdly elegant teeing up of Carlos Alberto in the 1970 World Cup final. Breaking news: this guy could play.
Factor in his rug-cutting in a clean white suit at Studio 54, and hell, we’ve talked ourselves round. With the caveat that we may change our mind on this subject tomorrow, he’s No 1. A hair’s breadth ahead of Diego and a good 20 or 30 places in front of dullards like Messi and CR7. Happy birthday, O Rei! The original soccer superstar and still the best.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s probably the best goal I’ve seen live – and I’ve been a professional since 1998. Unbelievable strike and he deserves all the plaudits for it” – Kemar Roofe’s own-half rocket in the Pope’s Newc O’Rangers’ Big Vase win at Standard Liège must have been special because $tevie Mbe has seen Djinkin’ Djimi Traore do this.
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FIVER LETTERS
“Re: Hartlepool United’s Remembrance Day kit (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). If they really wanted to show that ‘our respect goes to those who made the ultimate sacrifice’, then they should really have used a picture of an actual Battle of Britain Mk 1 Spitfire rather than the later Mk Vb from mid-1941 shown front and centre on the shirt” – Dan Kennish.
“Down here in flamin’ Oz, there is currently a story focused on the East Preston Islamic College in Melbourne. The school and its crest have appeared on our TV screens rather a lot recently, and I’m sure I’m not the only ex-pat who thought the school badge looked a tad familiar” – Allastair McGillivray.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Dan Kennish.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Ebbe Skovdahl, the former manager of Aberdeen and Brondby, has died of cancer. He was 75.
Note to government: Marcus Rashford is not going away – and he has an army of strangers feeding hungry kids because you won’t.
Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjær reckons Manchester United have to take care of Mason Greenwood now that buffet-bothering hacks have their knives sharpened for him. “He made a mistake with England and suddenly the whole English press go after him,” he sighed. “That’s something we have got to look after.”
Gerard Pique has put on a united front and torn into Barça on the eve of the clásico for how they handled L’il Lionel. “Messi deserves everything; the new stadium should be named after him first and then the sponsor,” he yelped. “We should preserve our figureheads, not underappreciate them.”
Like most Liverpool fans, Jürgen Klopp would rather not think about how long he will be without Virgil van Dijk. “We don’t want to know, to be honest,” he sniffed. “It will take time, that’s clear.”
José Mourinho has turned Jedi in an attempt to convince Son Heung-min that his future is lilywhite. “He would like to commit his future to [Tottenham] for more time,” he mind-tricked. “It is the club, and everybody in the club, being totally in love for this player.”
And David Moyes wants to know why fans can pay £6.99 to watch West Ham v Manchester City at the Vue cinema in Stratford, yet are still not allowed to watch the match outdoors at the London Stadium next door. “Please come out and give us an explanation,” he said, in hope more than expectation.
STILL WANT MORE?
Here’s a fresh new feature for you, folks*: 10 things to look forward to in the Premier League this weekend.
Suzanne Wrack has got some advice for Big Phil Neville.
Bristol City boss Dean Holden chews the fat with Ben Fisher on his promotion hopes and how dips in a freezing lake help clear his mind.
Ross Barkley gets his chat on with Paul Doyle about that shellacking of Liverpool, watching videos of himself during lockdown and why he’s loving not being substituted at Aston Villa.
And rounding off a hat-trick of interviews, Hakim Ziyech tells Nick Ames how he dealt with the pain of Ajax’s Big Cup defeat by Spurs, learning his trade on the mean streets of Dronten and clashing with Marco van Basten.
*Yeah, that wasn’t true.
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