- Edson Arantes do Nascimento famously known as Pelé, who died on Thursday, had visited Kenya in 1976.
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However, his tour was marred with squabbles after he was denied an opportunity to showcase some of the events he had scheduled.
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Edson Arantes do Nascimento famously known as Pelé, who died on Thursday, had visited Kenya in 1976.
However, his tour was marred with squabbles after he was denied an opportunity to showcase some of the events he had scheduled.
What was going to be the mother of all visits – symbolic though it was – ended in fiasco.
The football legend was infamously denied a chance to play an exhibition match in Nairobi and Mombasa during his Kenya tour.
Then President of the Kenya Football Federation(KFF) Kenneth Matiba refused to allow Pele to play an exhibition match in Nairobi.
Matiba said the federation would have nothing to do with Pele.
Matiba was at loggerheads with the organisers claiming he was consulted about the tour.
"Those planning to put Pele in shame should know that nothing happens in the world of football when rules are not adhered to," Matiba was quoted as saying then.
The organisers tried to seek refuge in Mombasa but faced a similar setback when the branch head Mbarak Said refused to grant their request.
Pele would then engage students at the Starehe Boys Centre as part of an initiative he had signed with the Pepsi company.
The Starehe Boys visit was just an effort to save face because his Kenya visit turned out to be a disaster.
Pele, the greatest footballer on earth, took Starehe Boys Centre schoolboys through their paces at the Jamhuri Park Stadium.
Pele failed to mention Kenya in his autobiography, perhaps an indication of the disappointment he felt during that eventful tour
The three-time World Cup winner ranks highly among the greatest players of all time, and he underwent surgery to remove a tumour from his colon last year.
As a 17-year-old, Pele inspired Brazil to their first World Cup triumph in 1958, and he won the tournament with the Selecao twice more, in 1962 and 1970.
It was six years later after leading Brazil to World Cup glory, that Kenyans were given a rare treat when Pele visited the country.
In his book, Pele: The Autobiography, he wrote, “It was in 1973 that I signed a contract with the Pepsi Cola Company to work on a worldwide project of football workshops for children called the International Youth Football Programme, on which I would collaborate with Julio Mazzei. I decided to try it out for a year – and it turned out to be one of the best things I ever got involved with.
“After the first year was done, I signed for another five. The programme was a triumph. It cost nothing to coaches, schools, or players. We produced a book and various posters of Professor Mazzei teaching, and made a coaching film called Pele: The Master and His Method, which won eleven international prizes.”