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Germany had won it once, Italy twice and, worst of all, near neighbours Uruguay had also won it twice, the second time when they beat hosts Brazil in the final in 1950 in front of 200,000 fans inside the Maracanã. The game became known as the ‘Maracanãza’ and the 2-1 defeat haunted the football team and country afterwards.
At the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, Brazil played for the first time in a changed strip. Out went their white and in came their iconic colours of today. Yellow and green. Their tournament, however, ended in the quarter-finals when they were defeated by a Ferenc Puskás-inspired Hungary – the tournament favourites – in the quarter-finals.
Sweden would be the first Nordic country to stage the World Cup. When Brazil landed they sported a number of notable players, not least Garrincha, the rapid and dribbling right winger; Vava, their lethal striker; and Didi, the midfielder-cum-striker.
They also had a 17-year-old inside left who had taken to international football after five games (and five goals) as if he was a seasoned professional. There had been much talk about this exciting young talent, at least in his native country, but elsewhere, and especially in northern Europe, Pelé was little known, certainly compared to many of his more illustrious colleagues.
All this would change within a handful of weeks in June, but not yet. The youngster was sidelined for the first two of three group games with a knee injury. In his absence Brazil did a job without suggesting what was to come.
They began with a 3-0 defeat of Austria, no mean feat against the team who won the bronze medal in the 1954 World Cup. They followed this up with a goalless draw against an England team hit hard by the Munich air disaster that happened earlier in the year. It was the first time Brazil had failed to score in their World Cup history.
By the time of the third and final group game, against the Soviet Union, Pelé had recovered from his injury and was ready to play. Despite this it was by no means certain he would be picked for the squad, at least not until his teammates waded into the selection. Once he had returned from the treatment room and resumed training the other players were united in their insistence to the management team that the teenager must be included.
And so he was, as Brazil saw off the Russians – the 1956 Helsinki Olympic champions, no less – 2-0 in the final group game. Coach Vicente Feola made three changes for the starting team – Zito, Garrincha and Pelé – and this would prove to be the difference. Brazil attacked from the kick off and, after providing wave after wave of assaults on the Russian goal, they scored in only the third minute of the match through the prolific Vava. These first three minutes were later described as the ‘greatest three minutes in the history of football’.
Pelé failed to score in this game but he did supply an assist for Vava and Brazil’s second goal in the 77th minute that ensured that they would go through to the knockout stages.
The quarter-final would see Brazil face Wales in Gothenburg on June 19th. The Welsh were hardly giants in world football but they had caused a shock by beating one of the tournament favourites, Hungary, in the group play-offs for the right to face the green and yellow. They had earlier drawn all three group games against Hungary, Mexico and eventual finalists and host nation, Sweden, so they were going to be a tough nut to crack.
However, they were missing their star player, John Charles, through injury and without the ‘Gentle Giant’, as he was known throughout world of football, the nut would crack in the 66th minute with Pelé’s first World Cup goal. It would prove to be the only goal of the game, and therefore the winner, as Brazil qualified for a semi-final against France.
It would be an intriguing contest because the French, with centre-forward Just Fontaine enjoying a hot streak of form, had been free-scoring up to this point, scoring seven goals against Paraguay and defeating Northern Ireland 4-0 in the quarter-finals. Brazil, normally known more for their offensive play, had not conceded a single goal in three group games and one knockout match. Something would have to give in the Stockholm suburb of Solna, where this semi-final and indeed the World Cup Final would be played.
For much of the first half there was little to choose between the two teams. After 36 minutes the score was 1-1, with the two best strikers in world football, Vava and Fontaine, scoring after just two and nine minutes respectively. Then the French captain, and their most experienced defender, Robert Jonquet, suffered a broken leg after a clash with Vava and had to be removed from the fray. With no substitutions allowed in football at the time, France had to play the rest of the game with ten men. Brazil took full advantage and by half time they had eased into a 2-1 lead after Didi had scored in the 39th minute.
The second half would belong to Brazil and, especially, a certain teenager. Pelé would become the youngest player in World Cup history to score a hat-trick – to add to being the youngest player and goalscorer – with goals in the 52nd, 64th and 75th minutes to destroy the French. The final score was 5-2, with France scoring a second consolation goal late in the game, and Brazil found themselves in their second World Cup Final.
Waiting for them would be tournament hosts Sweden. The sporting world was filled with excitement as they looked forward to watching this Brazilian team with so many stars playing at their optimum. Didi, Garrincha, Zito and Vava.
Most of all, however, they wanted to watch Pelé. In one game, and one World Cup semi-final hat-trick, the boy had become a superstar.
He was far from finished, either.
which Brazil won 1-0.
should have been feeling
the pressure of being
picked to play in the
World Cup, but he didn’t
feel it. He was confident.”
it made me feel I should
hang up my boots.”
victory over the French
Wisnieski in the changing rooms after the semi-final.
This was the first final featuring countries from two separate continents, Europe and the Americas. The fact that both teams wore yellow shirts as their first-choice strip caused problems even before the game kicked off. FIFA proposed that a draw should take place to decide which team would sport their regular strip, but Brazil boycotted this idea and Sweden ran out in their favoured yellow. Their opponents, in contrast, were going to wear white but the players felt unease about this after the 1950 World Cup Final home defeat to Uruguay in which they wore white shorts. Instead, the Brazilian staff bought 22 blue t-shirts and the national emblem was then sewed onto each of them.
The final did not start well for the men in blue, either. Sweden took the lead in the 4th minute after an excellent goal from their veteran captain, Nils Liedholm, drilling the ball low past the despairing right hand of the Brazilian goalkeeper. He became the oldest player ever to score in a World Cup Final at 35 years and 263 days.
The lead did not last long, however. Vava equalised just five minutes later and then scored again in similar fashion after 32 minutes to make it five goals from the striker in the tournament. It also meant Brazil went into the half time break with a 2-1 lead. Pelé had already hit the post with a first half shot but he was about to take himself and Brazil to another level.
In the 55th minute Brazil extended the lead to 3-1 with a goal from the 17-year-old wonderkid that is still considered one of the greatest World Cup Final goals of all time. Receiving the ball inside the Swedish penalty area from a Nilton Santos cross, Pelé first controlled the ball on his chest before easing past his nearest challenger. He then proceeded to flick the ball over defender Bengt Gustavsson before smashing a precise volley past the helpless Kalle Svensson in goal. It was a strike of breathtaking skill, nerve, confidence and beauty in any game, but to pull this off in a World Cup Final, against the hosts, and at such a tender age, was almost beyond belief. This, after all, was still only Pelé’s ninth international game for his country.
Mário Zagallo, the man who went on to manage Brazil in 1970, then made it 4-1 in the 68th minute to virtually ensure the victory. Tore Simonsson pulled a goal back in the 80th minute to provide the hosts with a sliver of hope but these were dashed by the teenage sensation in the final minute. Pelé flicked the ball from behind to Zagallo and was then on the end of Zagallo’s return cross to head the ball home with precision, looping it over Svensson’s head and into the corner of the net in stoppage time to make the final score 5-2. The Swedish defender, Sigvard Parling, later admitted: “When Pelé scored the fifth goal in that final, I have to be honest and say I felt like applauding.”
The sporting Swedish fans agreed. Even though they were witnessing the dismantling of their own heroes by this incredible Brazilian team, they cheered and applauded every pass played by the men in blue.
Pelé was so overcome with emotion that shortly after the final whistle had blown, he fainted and was revived by Garrincha. He then wept as he celebrated with his victorious teammates, later describing this triumph to be confirmation of a ‘nation coming of age’. The King of Sweden was so impressed that he came down from the stands to shake Pelé’s hand, even though this impudent teenager had just destroyed Swedish dreams.
He finished the tournament with six goals to his name in just four games played, tied second in the goalscorers list level with Germany’s Helmut Rahn, and behind the French star, Just Fontaine. Vava was fourth with five goals. Pelé was also proclaimed by the world’s press as the greatest revelation of the World Cup, and he also received the Silver Ball as the second-best player in the tournament behind his teammate, Didi.
This was also the tournament where Pelé made the number ten jersey his own. The Brazilian Federation failed to allocate any numbers for their players and so it was down to FIFA to hand out numbers. They chose the number ten for the young Pelé. It would become an iconic number on the back of an iconic shirt.
Brazil, at long last, were finally world champions. They had barely scraped through to the tournament but this newly-developed, multiracial squad had then delivered a winning style of football never witnessed before.
All kinds of records went during the 1958 final. Pelé became the youngest player to participate in, score in and win a World Cup Final, a record that stands to this day. The final had the highest number of goals scored by a winning team (five), the highest number of goals scored (seven) and together with the 1970 and 1998 finals, the highest winning margin of three goals. Brazil would win all three of these finals.
This was also the first final when the World Cup hosts reached the final without winning it. (The 1950 Maracanãzo does not count as this was a final group game that Brazil lost to Uruguay). It was and still is the only World Cup hosted by a European country but not ultimately won by a European team.
More importantly, it was the birth of the greatest football nation in World Cup history. And of its greatest player. In the space of just four games and less than four weeks of football, the boy Pelé had become the biggest star in world football.
World Cup Final against the host nation Sweden on June 29, 1958.
in the centre of the pitch
sleep because I wanted
to know if people in Brazil, my family, if they knew about the game, if they had
listened to it. Did they know I scored those goals?”