International Football
VIDEOS: IT’S 50 YEARS TODAY SINCE PELE SCORED HIS 1,000TH GOAL!
The revered Brazil striker Pele scored his 1,000th goal on November 19, 1969 at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium in a match between his beloved Santos and local outfit Vasco de Gama, whose vast ranks of fans gave the iconic No. 10 a standing ovation.
That goal half a century ago was a beautifully converted penalty,
which escaped the grasp of the Vasco goalkeeper, sparking a pitch invasion by
the press and culminating in Pele being paraded shoulder-high around the
historic stadium by his teammates.
Swarms of photographers and journalists had been poised pitchside for the moment.
Pele, a national hero after helping Brazil to two World Cup wins in 1958 and 1962, was still just 29 years old when he broke the 1,000-goal barrier.
The penalty decision was a doubtful one. Pele recently joked that with today’s VAR system it would likely have been refused.
The goal has etched itself into the Brazilian national consciousness, a deft finish into the bottom right corner, with Pele running to collect the ball and kissing it as he turned away.
Some 65,157 fans had bought tickets for the Brazilian league match in which Pele scored the landmark goal and which Santos went on to win 2-1. Folklore says there were 80,000 in the stands.
Even if today there is debate over the exact number of his goals
that should count in an official tally, there is no debate over Pele’s sublime
goal-scoring talent and the place the now 79-year-old holds in the public
imagination.
“I don’t need a party to celebrate this,” Pele said after the goal. “For me it is much more important to help poor children and those in need, I’m thinking above all of the kind of Christmas those people are going to spend.”
Years later, Pele would tell an anecdote about street children in Santos and how the message from his 1,000th goal was for them.
“A few days before the goal I was in Santos and I saw some kids trying to steal cars and I said: ‘Hey boys what are you doing?’ They tried to justify it by saying they would only target cars from Sao Paulo, so I told them they shouldn’t rob anyone at all. That was the message from my 1,000th goal,” Pele said.
Pele also says he held off from scoring his 1,000th goal so he could achieve the feat on the big stage at the Maracana.
In a hastily arranged friendly against Botofogo two weeks earlier he scored twice to take his tally to 999.
Then, on November 16, Santos played in Salvador against Bahia.
“I don’t want to annoy the Baianos, but I wanted the goal to be in an official game, so I stopped shooting at goal in that game. I was afraid the players would just let it in,” he said.
Many studies have been done on whether or not the November 19 goal was indeed his 1,000th and there are differences of opinion.
Whatever the count Pele, and his entourage, have settled on a final unofficial tally of 1,281 goals in 1,363 games, though that includes the many friendlies Santos played.
There is also his 1,000th goal in a Santos shirt which came against Universidad de Mexico in a friendly in Chicago July 2, 1972.
International football research web site RSSSF (Rec. Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation) put Pele’s total at 767 in 831 official matches. That puts him only third in the all-time list.
Czech striker Josef Bican stands top with 805 goals in 530 games in a career interrupted by World War II. Romario, who helped Brazil to the 1994 World Cup, is second on 772 goals from 994.
Breathing down Pele’s neck are current stars Cristiano Ronaldo on 724 from 1,018 games and Lionel Messi on 708 from 890.
–AFP
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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