Santos celebrate 100-year anniversary
Reuters - Friday 13 April 2012, 14:28
One name is enough to
summarise the importance of Santos to Brazilian football: Pele.
Yet Brazil's most famous club, who celebrate their 100th
anniversary on Saturday, do not live only in the past.
They thrive again with the 2014 World Cup hosts' jewel -
brilliant young striker Neymar.
Pele and Neymar are the biggest names of a club steeped in
glory and conquests whose climb to the summit began with the
arrival on the scene of "O Rei" (the king) in the mid-fifties.
This coincided with an era of Brazilian domination of world
football with three titles in the four World Cups played between
1958 and 1970.
"Even today throughout the world people speak of the Santos
of Pele," said former Brazil captain Carlos Alberto, a member of
the great generation of players that wore Santos's iconic white
strip and the country's yellow shirt.
"That take-off by Brazil to the top of football coincides
exactly with Pele's Santos. Brazilian football began to win the
big titles and be respected in the world through Pele's Santos
and Pele's Brazil," he told Reuters in an interview.
"In my opinion, Santos is the greatest symbol of Brazilian
football on the international scene. Santos did things that
marked the name of Brazilian football on the world stage," said
the 67-year-old, who spent 10 years of his career as a right
back at the club (1965-1975).
Pele's arrival at the age of 15 changed the history of the
club that was founded on April 14, 1912 and took the name of the
port city on Sao Paulo state's Atlantic coast.
The team that won two Paulista championships in the first 40
years of their existence lifted 10 state and six Brazilian
titles during the 18 years that Pele wore their number 10 shirt
between 1956 and 1974.
On top of that, Santos were crowned South American and club
world champions twice, winning the Libertadores Cup and the old
Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and 1963 with Pele.
ROUND THE WORLD
Spurred by their success and the attraction of their idol,
Santos went round the world playing tournaments and exhibition
matches. Two episodes show how much they were revered and loved
by the crowds.
In a 1968 friendly against the Colombian national team, Pele
was sent off during the first half. Players recall how the
Colombian crowd forced the referee to be substituted by his
reserve and Pele stayed on for the rest of the game.
In another incident, on a tour of Africa, Santos landed in
the middle of a civil war in the old Congo, which had just
gained its independence. Only after the rival forces agreed on a
ceasefire, did Santos agree to play friendlies against the
national team.
"I thank God for having put me in Santos. I was able to
enjoy Santos promoting Brazil throughout the world," Pele said
at this week's launching of a book on the club's centenary.
"Certainly outside Brazil, Santos is loved by everyone. In
Brazil, they're everyone's second team. The only place Santos
haven't been to is the moon," he said during the event at the
club's Vila Belmiro ground.
Pele's departure for the New York Cosmos near the end of his
career in 1975 also marked the end of a glorious era for Santos.
There were just two Paulista titles in 1978 and 1984 before the
gifted Robinho arrived to herald a new era with the Brazilian
title in 2002.
Robinho, now at AC Milan having also played for Real Madrid
and Manchester City with only limited success, was a skinny
17-year-old when he led a young team to that first post-Pele
national title and repeated the feat in 2004.
The natural progression that came from a rejuvenated youth
policy at the club produced Neymar, the player to whom Brazil
are looking for their sixth world crown in 2014 on home soil.
"Robinho is my idol. He's above me," says the 20-year-old,
who inspired Santos to their third Libertadores Cup last year
and first since 1963 with Pele.
Neymar, who cemented his status as an idol in Brazil by
rejecting offers of a move to Europe by Barcelona, Chelsea and
Real Madrid and renewing his contract at least until after the
World Cup, is Santos's main hope of more glory in their
centenary year.