It was Saturday September 26 2015 and at Griffin Park Brentford were losing 1-2 to Sheffield Wednesday in a game best remembered for the fact that it finished with ten men on each side. James Tarkowski was sent off and Jeremy Helan of Wednesday got a second bookable offence.
Meanwhile back at our training ground in Jersey Road the Pele Eunova Cup was underway with ten youth teams – including Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich – competing for the trophy. The Brazilian legend, the ambassador for the tournament, was there to meet the players and present the trophy to the winners,Liverpool. 
One of the organisers said “Pele came along and lifted the whole mood of the place, the kids were awestruck. It was fantastic to meet a legend of world football. He was very generous and gracious, and open with his time. He was happy to sit with the boys, he made time for everybody.”
A welcoming party from Brentford FC was there to greet Pele on Bees property.
L-R: Phil Giles, Phil Whall, Pele, Rasmus Ankersen, Cliff Crown and Nity Raj.
Brentford Chairman, Cliff Crown, also got the chance for a separate word with the great man. When the news of Pele’s death was announced in December 2022 Cliff recalled that day in 2015.
Brentford’s Chief Executive Jon Varney also had the chance to Pele in very different circumstances two years earlier in 2013. It came when Jon was working at a company called Pitch where he was responsible for organising all of Brazil’s friendly matches around the world. “One match I organised was Brazil v Portugal, effectively Neymar v Ronaldo, which was played, of all places, in the New England Patriots Stadium in Boston”.
The Brazil-Portugal game in Boston organised by Jon Varney
“We invited Pele and Eusebio who were great friends and I was privileged to spend a little bit of time with them before the match. It was like royalty coming into the room but Pele was absolutely charming and he had time for absolutely everybody. It didn’t matter if they were the people who thought they were the most important in the room or the waiters and service staff. I didn’t see him once turn down a request for a photograph or an autograph”.
Pele met a young Neymar before the game.
“The Brazilian players in that match had genuine love for him, he was seen as the forerunner of all great things for Brazilian football. We were in Boston that night and the words ‘legend’ and ‘awesome’ are used a lot in America. Mike no mistake Pele was a legend and he was awesome”.
Perhaps the most remarkable story of ‘How I met Pele’ comes from Mike Sullivan, formerly Brentford’s Sales Manger and now the Legends Liaison Manager. Mike had always wanted to meet his idol.
“Pele meant a lot to me when I was a little boy because I had heard so much about him, he was just unbelievable. England played Brazil at Wembley in 1963 and I rushed home from school to watch on a 12 inch black and white TV because Pele was going to play. I was so excited but when I got home I found Pele wasn’t playing”. The near capacity crowd at Wembley booed when it was announced that they wouldn’t see Pele play, he had been injured in a crash in Germany before leaving for London.
In 1987 Pele came to England as the guest of honour at an English Football League v the Rest of the World game which was held as part of the Football League’s centenary celebrations. Mike was there: “Pele paraded around the pitch so I saw him but obviously I was just in the stand’.
But eventually in later years Mike was able to meet his idol face to face and for longer than he had ever expected.
“An agent brought him over on a commercial basis and if you wanted to meet Pele you could if you paid £395. You were put in a VIP room and when it was your turn you were ushered into another room and there would be Pele sitting on a stool with a backdrop behind you. He would shake your hand, smile, there would be a photograph and you would get a brief word with him. Prints of the picture, signed by him, would be given to you ten minutes later and that would be it.
“A lot of people who paid the money were nervous in front of him and didn’t know what to say. But I knew the former Spurs goalkeeper Pat Jennings and he said ‘mention my name’ because Pele had picked Pat for a touring side called ‘Pele All Stars’ in 1988 .
“So what happened was that I paid the money, went up to Pele and said “I’m a very good friend of Pat Jennings”. It was all meant to be conveyor belt stuff but Pele stopped and said excitedly ‘oh yes Pat’ and we ended up having a proper two minute conversation.This was much to the annoyance of the people organising the photographs, because Pele wanted to talk. When we went to another room to get the photographs Pele joined us and he wanted to carry on the conversation with me. From an ego point of view I felt ten feet tall”.