Singh meets Pele

TO meet one of the most influential people in sports is every sportsperson's dream. There are many sporting icons in the world that have left a legacy or are still earning accolades.

One of them is Edson Arantes do Nascimento or commonly known as Pele.

The retired Brazilian professional footballer is widely regarded to be the greatest player of all time.

In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

In the same year, Pele was elected Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.

For a Fijian, the ratio to meet the legend would probably be one in a 100,000.

However, Ba businessman Pradeep Singh, who is a football fanatic, has met Pele not once, but twice.

The first was an unusual meeting back in 1972 in Thailand. Pradeep vividly describes the events that unfolded in Bangkok when he eluded the tight security to enter the changing room of Pele's world famous FC Santos team that was touring South East Asia.

"I was backpacking through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines," Pradeep said.

"As a 26 year old, while most of my Aussie university graduate friends decided to back pack in Europe, I decided on the South East Asia and India scene. FC Santos was on a tour of South East Asia in May 1972. The match was between FC Santos and Raj-Pracha FC which had eight Thai internationals in its ranks at the time.

"After the game I walked into the players changing room and the security saw my afro hair back then and dark skin and thought that I was a Brazilian and part of the team. So I walked straight to Pele and shook his hand. I told him that I was from Fiji but he had a vague idea where the country was. Besides he couldn't speak much English."

Pradeep's second meeting with Pele was on the 27th of last month in Sydney, Australia.

It was at a private function for Australian sports journalist, soccer broadcaster and analyst Les Murray of SBS Television who retired after 35 years.

Pradeep said Pele was in Australia for two days as a special guest of Murray.

"Les is known in Australia as "Mr Football" and most Fijians would have seen him during the World Cup coverage in Brazil (2014), South Africa (2010) and other World Cups. He also presented the English Premier League and UEFA games as well for SBS TV.

"Les has been promoting the "Beautiful Game" in Australia for more than three decades and had interviewed Pele on several occasions.

"So a small group of Les' friends decided to host a private luncheon for Pele. At the luncheon we mingled with Pele and each one of us asked him questions and he told of his own experiences.

"He joked that as a football player he spent at most a total of four months in hospital. But with a small kidney stone he spent six months in hospital in Brazil last year.

"I asked him if he thought that Dunga was the right coach for Brazil for the next FIFA World Cup in Russia after the disastrous outcome in the last year. Pele revealed that he supported Dunga as a coach because he got the players more involved than Filipe Scholari did when it came to inclusion of ideas and strategy of the team.

"Pele's only regret is that the Brazilian players don't get to play together enough as a team before a big event like the World Cup because most of them are contracted in Europe and don't get to prepare for the big event."

Pele participated at three World Cups 1958 (Sweden), 1962 (Chile) and 1970 (Mexico).

His role model was his father Dondinho who was also a professional football player. Pele as a nine-year-old watched his father cry when Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in 1950.

When Pele played for Brazil in 1958 his dream was to win the prized trophy for his father.

"I joked with him that his English had improved and he laughed saying that his time with Cosmos in the United States changed all that," Pradeep said.

"When asked why he did not take up coaching Pele jokingly stated that only crazy people become coaches and he wasn't crazy.

"Pele told us that the toughest defenders he faced as a striker for Brazil was Franz Beckenbauer of Germany and the late Bobby Moore of England.

Pradeep said Pele knew more about Fiji on this trip.

"Pele stated that the nation needs to play a lot more international games to get the experience for the big events like the World Cup.

"He stated that youth development program was vital and that several of FC Santos players like Neymar (Neymar da Silva Santos Jnior-Barcelona) played indoor futsal which was good for developing the skills and quick responses before advancing to 11 a-side game.

Pradeep is the managing director of Sydney based Kenzotech Australia Pty Limited which is an information technology company specialising in application development and maintenance, business process outsourcing and consulting services with two branches in India as well.

He has been a close friend of Murray for the past decade.

"Les had shown interest in Fiji football as he broadcasted the World Cup qualifying game between Fiji and Australia in 1988," Pradeep said.

"When we first met, Les thought I was related to the late Billy Singh who was the coach back then. After that match, Les felt that the Fijians had the talent and today he is more than happy to help Fiji develop the game.

"For his last career interview, Les was honoured to have a 15 minute one-on-one with Pel that aired during primetime on SBS Television on March 26. That interview was attended by 650 people in Sydney."

Pradeep is no stranger to aiding the development football in the country. His initial company Integer Computing back in the 1980s sponsored the Ba team.

In fact Pradeep is the person who set up Ivor Evans' trial with the Vancouver 86ers and financed his trip to Canada.

Evans the former Labasa, Ba and national rep passed the test and went on to become Fiji's first ever professional footballer.

"It was Billy who approached me about Ivor," Pradeep recalled.

"Billy stated that there was no future for Ivor's talent in Fiji and if I could assist him. I knew the coach/player of Vancouver 86ers then, Bobby Leonaduzzi who had played for Canada at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

"I took the cuttings from The Fiji Times about Ivor following which Bobby agreed to try Ivor out. The condition was that I pay for the airfares and other costs and if Ivor is accepted then the Vancouver 86ers would reimburse me.

"They were impressed with Ivor and my airfare cost was reimbursed. At that time Canada had its own league and Ivor played for Vancouver 86ers (now called the Whitecaps) against Toronto, Montreal and Alberta teams.

"In Canada, Ivor was known as the "Fiji Flash" for his speed and skill.

During the off season Ivor played indoor football for St Louis in the United States."

Evans in an interview in the Fiji Times which was printed on December 19 in 2010 admitted that a local businessman Pradeep Singh promised to take him to Canada, USA or Mexico if he helped Ba win the 1986 Inter District Championship.

"We won and he did," Evans was quoted.

Growing up in Ba, the only sport Pradeep knew was soccer.

"As much as I disliked the Lautoka team of 1950s and 1960s and wanted Ba to beat them, I used to secretly admire their skill. Of course football in Ba changed when Augustine Thoman of Lautoka switched allegiance and played for Ba and beat Lautoka.

"In the 1950s as far as overseas football was concerned, all I knew about was Manchester

United, Tottenham Hotspurs and Sir Stanley Mathews (England) and Sir Bobby Charlton (England).

"Fiji being a British Colony back then, there was some coverage of the English Football League. In 1958 as a 12-year-old I heard of Pele from my father. Brazil had just won the 1958 World Cup in Sweden for the first time and my father told me that Pele was a 17- year-old football sensation.

"Although I knew from geography lessons at school where Brazil was, I had no idea of the races of people in Brazil.

"It was only in 1960 when I went to the Xavier College library and picked up a magazine that I saw a picture of Pele as a 19-year-old sitting with a football and smiling.

"My immediate reaction was, good God, he is like us Fijians. That magazine strengthened my affair with football and started my love with Brazil and Pele.

"So much so, that after finishing my studies at the University of the New South Wales I was planning to migrate to Brazil in 1971.

"I took up Brazilian Portuguese language as a subject in my last year at the university."

With such passion for football, Pradeep has been to two FIFA World Cups, Mexico in 1986 and in Italy in 1990. He cancelled his trip to the 1982 World Cup in Spain when Brazil got knocked out in the quarter-finals by none other than Paulo Rossi of Italy.

"I never got to watch the greats, Socrates and Zico in action," Pradeep said.

"At first I couldn't believe that Brazil was out so I phoned The Fiji Times sports section in Suva that morning only to be told, yes they are out.

"In 1989, I visited the old Maracana Stadium in Rio. It had a capacity of almost 200,000 and at the entrance it had a big picture of the 1970 World Cup Brazilian team with Pele and others in it. It has since been demolished and a new and smaller stadium was built for the 2014 World Cup."

Pradeep was appointed on the Fiji Football Association football committee in 2012 with plans to secure attachments for the local players in the under-11 age group category in Australia, however this failed to materialise.

Singh plans to travel to Brazil next year to set up a software development company in either Rio or Brasilia.

In Latin America, Brazil is the largest country and the biggest in the field of information technology.