Pelé: Ronaldo’s tears and the San Siro anecdote

The Phenomenon remembered O’Rei: “His greatness will never pass away.”

Ronaldo dedicated a remembrance, published in La Gazzetta dello Sport, to Pele: “There is no consolation in the knowledge: I have been waiting, waiting, for this moment for days, but today I am sad because a friend who I loved and who loved me, even before an emblem of our sport, and of the whole history of sport, has gone. A man who became a symbol of the beauty of soccer. They said that about me, too, but that nickname I still carry with me, Fenomeno, I always felt “wide” when I thought about how wide he had been: he was Pelé, the real Fenomeno.”

Ronaldo recalls one anecdote in particular: “An ‘Italian’ memory of him, one of the sweetest I have of him, is among those I carry most fondly. It was 2000, not long since I had ruptured my patellar tendon in the ‘famous’ match at the Olimpico: the most serious injury of my career. Pelé was in Italy, from Rome he had to go to New York, but first he decided to take a plane to Milan: just to say goodbye and give me a hug of his own. I had crutches, he accompanied me holding me under his arm outside on the terrace, and in front of us was San Siro, so close you felt you could touch it. He told me how he had played there with Santos and with Brazil, how Angelo Moratti had bought him for Inter but he didn’t feel like leaving Brazil. Massimo, my president, who in the meantime called me on the phone to say goodbye to him, confirmed everything and then I asked him if I could get Pelé to sign a contract with Inter until January, so he could play in my place while waiting for me to get better: he laughed like crazy. Pelé is still more with God, but his greatness will never go away.”