Milan, Inter and Juventus: o Rey could have played in Serie A for one of these teams. Una was really close to signing him but, despite the signed contracts, he skipped everything.
Angelo Moratti’s Inter Milan were the closest Italian team to getting Pelé to Serie A.
Milan, Inter and Juventus. Pele he could have played in one of these great teams of Italian football, tread the fields of Serie A. On the day of his death review the background light told by the Brazilian star himself over the years and others confirmed by the former Nerazzurri president, Massimo Moratti.
It was dad’s club Angel come close to engaging the Black Pearl. It was all done but he had to give it up because in those days a revolt of the supporters, driven by the visceral attachment to the man, the champion, the son of their land stopped everything despite the fact that the contracts had already been signed.
The then number one of Santos said that he had no choice in the face of pressure from the crowd, threats, the risk of a revolt under the banner of “you have to pass over our bodies first”. Moratti fell in love with him after the World Cup in Sweden: that little boy, not even of age, had managed to amaze the international audience and drag Brazil to victory against the Scandinavians, sweeping away with his talent (also) the roughness of the opponents : it finished 5-2 with braces from Vavà and Pelè, seal from Zagallo.
A popular revolt stopped the transfer of the Black Pearl to Inter.
“I remember perfectly that we had signed Pelé for the 1958-1959 season – Massimo Moratti told the Gazzetta -. Dad immediately took action and made sure of it, anticipating other interested clubs. Regular contract, signed and only to be deposited”.
But then the unbelievable happened. A whisper was enough which in a short time turned into drumming word of mouth. They would never let him go. “It was no longer a football affair but a case of conscience and so dad tore up that contract. Reluctantly he agreed to the request of the Santos president who was very worried for his safety…”.
Inter but also Milan tried to buy Pelé, in that case the story took a different turn. O Rey himself spoke about it in an intervention at the ‘Rosea’: “I could have come to play for Milan too”, She said. At the ’62 World Cup Amarildo took center stage taking advantage of an injury to the Black Pearl and then the ‘devil’ changed his mind and chose his Seleçao teammate.
It was O Rey himself who said that Milan and Juventus also tried to sign him.
Sliding doors, what could have been and was not because fate wanted it. Juventus also tried to bring Pele to Italy. A post from the former champion that dates back to Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer to Juventus revealed what few knew.
“Good luck, Cristiano, for your first match with Juve – he wrote -. If things had gone differently, perhaps I would have played for the Old Lady as well. One evening in 1961, during a dinner, the owner of Fiat offered to the president of @SantosFC a million dollars to sign me! But I only played with these stripes”.
Pele never played in Italy because of a revolt: he had signed, they tore up the contract