Pele laments the rise in football players' salaries, with a sense of envy at an opportunity missed.
Early this month, Pele urged FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, to introduce a salary cap for players and warned that the vast sums of money changing hands in the game could taint its image for future generations.
“My time was a little different — we did not have the big sponsors,” Pele told Reuters in an interview. “Today they have big sponsors, big companies to support football. But in my point of view and the point of view of FIFA, these (players’ salaries) must be controlled.”
Pele’s caution came in the aftermath of Real Madrid’s $300 million shopping spree, which culminated with Cristiano Ronaldo’s $131 million move from Manchester United to the affluent Spanish club (the other pickings are Karim Benzema, Kaka and Raul Albiol).
“You get a player today that they announce in Manchester United, Real Madrid or Milan or any other team, and they kiss their shirt… The next day, he goes to another team and he kisses that shirt,” the three-time World Cup winner said.
Umpire’s Post wonders if this is the lament of a man who fears that opportunity has passed him by.
Most people would say Pele, who scored 1,300 goals in his career, is the best player the world’s most popular game has seen — soccer’s biggest star and a true fairy tale story. Still, he could not translate his success on the field to money off it. His career ended just before the gigantic marketing machinery took control of the game and big money began to flow in. Pele owned a construction company that went bust and a sports-marketing firm that collapsed amid a financial scandal. He tried his hand at product endorsement with mixed success. And when he plugged Viagra, he took care to say he did not need the drug. By fate or by design, he never served as a coach, a top team executive, or a major television commentator. Pele’s big payday came in 1975, when the New York Cosmos signed him for $4.5 million. But David Beckham made $45 million last year in salary and endorsements.
So, you would find Pele being named the Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee, in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, and distributing soccer balls among Nigerian children, but never in a list of the wealthiest. Thirty-two years after retiring, and three months before he turns 69, Pele is still waiting to cash in on his unrivalled achievements on the field.
His latest hope is pinned on a merchandising deal with Nomis, a little-known Swiss cleat manufacturer. Then there is a potential bio-pic, plans for a video game and an animation feature planned by an Indian technology company. Will Pele score?