Pele Robbed at Gunpoint, Still Has All His Goals

Could you rob a legend? I definitely couldn’t. I can’t even borrow a teabag without getting cold sweats.

But 10 armed men in Sao Paulo had no such problems when they pointed guns and knives at Pele and demanded the Brazilian national treasure* hand over his belongings.

Pele had to hand over his gold necklace, watch and a mobile phone.

Good news is:

1) They didn’t take any of his goals. Pele still has 1,281.
2) The World Cup winner is unhurt and is said to have remained calm (though that could have changed if the robbers had tried to takes 282 or more of his goals.)

Apparently this all happened last month, but has been kept hush-hush until now. According to reports, there’s consistent traffic congestion where the incident (and by “incident” I mean armed men robbing Pele!!!) took place, and gangs use the opportunity to rob people as they wait for the lights to change.

Bad news is this: the men recognized him. From Times Online:

When the assailants approached his car, Pelé rolled down the window and told them who he was, but they robbed him anyway.

They recognized arguably the word’s greatest ever player (and definitely the world’s most high profile Viagra salesman) and still took his shit. Worse, they returned the driver’s belongings and kept Pele’s. Unreal.

Here are the two thoughts I can’t get away from:

1) Doesn’t matter how much of a legend you are, someone, somewhere will still rob you. Not cool.
2) Can you imagine the numbers in Pele’s mobile phone? Bring-bring, “Yes, hello, is that Sepp Blatter? Listen, about this 6+5…”

*that’s official by the way, Pele was decreed a national treasure in 1961

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football