We met Pelé!!

Well, this is the first time I write a blog. But there's a good reason, and I guess I will tell this story over and over again to my friends back home…

Well, short story long…Last week we found out that there was a football match being held in Cape Town to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday. Africa was playing rest of the world with players such as Samuel Et'o, Ruud Gullit, George Weah, Ivan Zamorano, Leonardo – and the almighty Pelé himself! We immediately went out to buy tickets. Meanwhile we joked about it would be cool to make some interviews with a few of the players asking them the 10 Questions on democracy. And now they were all here in Cape Town we should give it a shot!

Somehow we got hold of some FIFA press accreditations (through a friend of a friend of a friend giving favours in late bar meetings - long story!) We asked around on some hotels if Pelé was staying here (at one hotel the receptionist asked if Pelé is spelled with a "B" and what his last name is - she must have been one of the few on earth who has never heard about this man). Finally we found out that Pelé and all the other players were staying at the Arabella Sheraton Hotel near the waterfront.

Varun, Max and I packed our equipment and headed for the Sheraton in the infamous beetle. On our way there the floor fell off the car at the backseats - making the beetle a kind of Flintstone-mobile – but we managed to get to the hotel anyway and parked the noisy damaged beetle next to the Aston Martins and BMWs in front of the lobby.

We felt quite misplaced in the fancy lobby, but did our best to look cool, calm and collected – though it seemed like all the suits were starring at us. We had to get out of the lobby – then Max saw a sign for that the Gym on the 19th Floor. We quickly jumped into an elevator, desperately pushing the top floor bottom.



There were no players in the Gym, but the lady at the desk said we could try in the Tower Club next door (instead of kicking us out!). Alright… We found a seat in the Tower Club hoping to see some players. Suddenly former French star Karambeau came out, but we didn't recognize him at that time. Was that maybe Ruud Gullit? No, I heard he has short hair now…? Shortly after a tall German FIFA official approached us asking what we were doing here. Already being expected to get kicked out we tried to explain about the Why Democracy? project and stuttered a silent "no.." when he asked if we had any appointment. To our great surprise his answer was "It's ein bischen hard to recognize all the players, I can maybe help with Pelé, wait one minute".

Varun and I quickly went downstairs to pick up the rest of our equipment in the beetle and on our way back the lobby was suddenly packed with footballers, footballer's wives (Adrina!) and about one million journalists. Most of them surrounding Samuel Et'o in one corner or Pelé in the other. We spotted the German FIFA official trying to get hold of Pelé in the swarm of journalists. All of a sudden Varun & I were in the elevator with some FIFA guys, Pelé and his crew. He is actually a short man… He gave the both of us a solid handshake as the elevator transported us back to the Tower Club. An English film crew had waited all day for an interview with Pelé and the legend went inside for the interview. He came out of the interview box a few minutes later and his manager told it was now time to leave. But Pelé replied that he would like to give us an interview first…! He walked up to us and hugged the three of us! Wow, Pelé just gave me a hug..?!! I explained about the Why Democracy to Pelé, while Varun was getting ready with the camera. It seemed that Pelé listened with interest, but suddenly he rose from the sofa and I thought he was leaving because didn't want to talk about democracy… no no no! But it was just to get an extra pillow to sit on - so he wouldn't look too short on TV!

The interview began with Max asking the questions. At first Pelé spoke a lot about religion and God and it seemed he really enjoyed talking about those issues. He has something on heart! I sat at the floor holding the microphone right in front of him. At one point during the interview I looked out on the Capetonian skyline lights and looked back at the man right in front of me and realized I actually sat right in front of Pelé – the greatest player of all time! (after Maradona in my personal opinion). Pretty cool.



We finished the interview and Pelé hugged us goodbye. He is a nice warm person. Pelé and his crew went into the elevator, and we suddenly realized that we needed him to sign a form stating we can use the interview in our project. I jumped into the elevator giving his manager the papers, but Pelé took over immediately and while we went down I had a strange conversation with the legend about right-issues. But it was cool as long as we didn't use it for commercials…

On our way back in the beetle we were screaming and shouting, still high and excited. Then we drank a hell lot of beers on the local bar – where nobody believed our story of course!

Next day (on Mandela's birthday) we got access to a trip to Robben Island with all the other players. We got interviews with George Weah, former prisoners, and one Oscar-winning star. They were gathered for a ceremony on the pitch on Robben Island to kick a symbolic 89 goals against racism. It was not the worst company for a Robben Island trip. But that's another story…

Cheers,
Anders

The Pelé interview will soon be online at
www.whydemocracy.net/democracyhouse/home
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6904103.stm