I thought Pelé was the greatest player of all-time long before I saw him kick a ball. It was a truism repeated by library books and magazine polls and one-off award shows; by pundits and players and, on a few outspoken occasions, Pelé himself. Then came my first World Cup in 1998 and with it, fuzzy footage of Pelé’s goals and fist-pumping celebrations. Held aloft by teammates and fans like a trophy, the Brazilian quickly took on a mythic quality in my mind.
Little did I know that Pelé's reputation was coming under scrutiny. It had been twenty-eight years since he retired from international duty, and a dwindling number of people could actually boast about having watched him in his early prime. Nonbelievers dissected his astonishing goal tally, ridiculed his commercial partnership with Viagra and rebelled against his FIFA-endorsed legacy-building operation. Was he even that great, or was he simply a superior player in an inferior age?
It's an unfair debate that's put firmly to bed in Pelé, a new Netflix documentary that covers the Brazilian icon’s route to global stardom. Aided by an in-depth interview with the man himself (now 80 and unable to walk without assistance), the film does a great job of capturing Pelé's magnificent impact on football and pop culture, achieving far more than a 'Pele Best Goals Ever | Respect The Legend | Devastatingly Powerful Tekkers' YouTube compilation could ever hope to. It also touches on his failings, both personal and political.
We sat down with directors David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas to talk about process behind the portrait, and the pressure they felt to do Pelé justice.
Do you think there's a danger of younger generations forgetting about Pelé, or simply dismissing him?
David Tryhorn: It was literally one of the first things Ben and I chatted about before we made the film. You can see it now in the conversations around his goals, now that Messi and Ronaldo are breaking his records, and his records being brought into dispute a little bit. I think there is a danger that people will dismiss Pelé very easily. That's one of the main reasons we wanted to make the film, because here is a guy who basically rewrote the rule book in terms of how a footballer is regarded in in the world. Messi or Ronaldo might end up being better than him or having better statistics than him, but they can't walk in his footsteps. He was the first, he was the pioneer; he's Elvis or Neil Armstrong. I think with that in mind, we felt the time was right to make a film on Pelé that focused on his playing career and really contextualises what he meant at the time.
Ben Nicholas: Because of the era he played in, he's someone that maybe lacked the cultural reference points that we have for modern players. It’s obviously hard to appreciate his career from a couple of YouTube clips. But all of us as kids had that superficial knowledge of this mythical character. I guess we saw our job as explaining how this kid became the mythical character, and then try to humanise that myth as well.
It looks like Neymar is going to beat his Brazil record. That feels wrong somehow, doesn't it?
BN: It can’t happen!
What was it like searching through the old footage?
DT: We went through hundreds of hours of archive, pouring through footage, finding private collectors with footage. FIFA have so many rushes because Santos toured the world, so the footage was cropping up in every single country where Pelé had been. The great thing with old footage is that a lot of it's film footage, so it’s absolutely beautiful once you can scan it. The problem is a lot of it doesn't have audio; it's not like you’re following a player in the Eighties or Nineties with a camcorder and everything is recorded. But I think we were always struck that there was always a camera. And even when the camera picks up Pelé and he's not noticing it, he'll suddenly spot the camera out the corner his eye and then his smile lights up the room. You can see his magnetism throughout that archive.
BN: I think we definitely kind of felt that he was lucky that he had this sense, throughout his life, of being the right man at the right time. Radio and magazines and the need for cover stars and then, more importantly, air travel becoming affordable so that Santos were able to tour him around the world. You definitely felt that a lot of things come together at that moment to make Pelé become Pelé.
At the beginning of the documentary, Pelé enters slowly on a walking frame. It's a bit of a gut punch. He's so synonymous with youth, and the film felt quite melancholy as a result.
DT: I think that's quite intentional. Another of the reasons we wanted to make the film was because we thought it was the right time. Pelé’s now 80. He's kind of the last man standing of all these legendary figures that we grew up revering as these mythical figures that used to play the game. Not just Pelé; it's almost the last testament of this generation of incredible players, you know from Zagallo up to Jairzinho and Rivelino in the Seventies. It's great you say that it felt like a punch in the stomach because that's what we always intended with that scene, that it felt like a real gut punch to see Pele like that, who ultimately was, in his time, the greatest athlete of all time.
BN: He was lovely throughout, but we also always knew we're dealing with one of the most famous guys to ever walk the planet, so that shot was a very happy accident.
The documentary arrives not long after the death of Maradona, a man Pelé was constantly compared to. The same debate has raged around Messi and Ronaldo, and will no doubt continue. What do you think about those kinds of rivalries?
DT: I think they add to the fun and theatre, though I don't necessarily agree with them. We desperately avoid any comparisons because I think they're a little bit worthless really, especially when you're comparing across areas. Pelé is completely different from Maradona, who’s completely different to Messi and Ronaldo. They're all great players in their time. Our argument for Pelé is that he was the first, and only one person gets to be the first. But I think they're pretty harmless and it's great, because if people are still talking about someone like Pelé – and ultimately this is a guy playing 60 years ago – it keeps him relevant. It's important to remember the history of football in that sense.
BN: I hope the film shows what I think is his unmatched, unparalleled sense of occasion and how he just relentlessly turned up in the big match throughout his career. How he was able to imbue those games with iconic moments. He almost creates his own iconography as he goes.
Pelé knew how to market himself. He was clean-cut, handsome and largely uncontroversial. Did he have preternatural understanding of the media from a young age?
DT: I think he did. One of the things we found really remarkable is, this isn't your classic become-the-most-famous-person0-in-the-world-and-crumble-under-those-pressures story, he didn't do a Maradona. The fame he had from the late Fifties and throughout his life is incredible and very clearly he felt the pressures, certainly initially. He told us that when he was 17 he struggled to read and write and sign autographs; he came from a very poor upbringing, and he didn't necessarily have the education to deal with it, but he came from a very, very strong, grounded family, which I think helped him a lot. As Ben was saying, he has this sense of being the right guy the right time. It’s weird, we can’t really explain it. He seemed just to understand fame and he could compartmentalise his life. ‘I’m this character that’s Pele. I can let it all wash over me. I can cope with the pressure. And I can move on from it, as well as actually genuinely quite enjoy it.' He still does today. He lights up in a room when the film crew's around him.
BN: He became a symbol of a whole country, and that time such an exciting country. I think it's partly to do with that. I think it’s easy to forget how young he was, so I think when you become the symbol for a whole country at that age, that partly explains why you may have to create a character for yourself.
He received criticism for not speaking out against the Brazilian military dictatorship. He's still targeted for his apolitical stances today. Do you think his desire for fame made him easy to manipulate?
DT: Probably. He's always been relatively apolitical, and it's something we don't shy away from because it is probably the biggest criticism held against him. I think it's also remembering that this guy is a young footballer and we shouldn't necessarily expect young footballers to always take a political stand. You know, the Sixties was a changing world and we feel he was a bit of a 1950s star who perhaps didn't adapt to the changing times. He’s an old-fashioned superstar; still is, in the way he signs autographs for people and all the rest of it. He’s always been very keen not to take a stance, but I think it's also about remembering his age and background. We always like to see Pele as some sort of 50 year old, and even when we look at footage he always seems quite ageless. It’s remembering that he was 23 when the Brazilian dictatorship came in 1964. In 1970m when we feel he's this absolutely veteran of the game, he’s 29. He retires from playing for Brazil the next year at the age of 30, which would be unthinkable in the modern game for someone of his stature.
BN: He’s certainly a product of his era. He thought his job was to score goals, represent Brazil, represent Santos, smile and shake everyone's hand. I think once you start down that road it's probably quite hard to then just suddenly become a radical figure.
Looking through the footage. what goal or interview stuck out?
BN: When we watched that final after 1970, when we saw everyone rush onto the pitch and lift him up. I think we knew in that moment that it was going to be the end [of the film]. Ridley Scott couldn't have directed a better set piece for the end of a film.
DT: Very few people know that he quit playing for Brazil after the 1966 World Cup, and he didn't play for Brazil for a couple of years. We just didn't have him saying ‘I quit’, and then we managed to find some footage from Portuguese TV where I think they interviewed him on the way home London in Lisbon Airport, where he sort of confirmed that he was quitting. You see all the goals and you're always amazed by how modern they look. This was a guy ahead of his time and in a slightly slower game in the Fifties and Sixties, looking like he's playing 40 years later. But for us the bits that really made us excited were filling in gaps in the story with archive that you just hope is out there.
DT: I think we often forget the importance of him and what he did at the time. He's 80 now, a wise elder statesman-like figure; more like an old bluesman or something, and we can appreciate him more. Middle age is a terrible time for footballers. We associate Pelé much more as guy who will turn up for a World Cup draw in a suit and we put that establishment tag on him, when he's actually a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops Brazilian at home. I think at the time we almost forget that he was this beacon of hope and pride. He was a fearsome player for Brazil. That incredible smile; sexy, young and full of hope. I think people forget that when we think about Pelé today.
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