Brazilian legend lands in Ireland to spread word of hope"I worship the ball and treat it like a god."

In a world fixated by football and its stars, Pele remains the game's most iconic figure. A man revered around the planet for his remarkable ability to embody the aspirations, hopes and dreams of everyone who has ever considered kicking a football.

Except that 'kicking' is probably the wrong word to use in connection with Pele.

He is, after all, the three-times World Cup winner who once said: "Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem."

Clearly, Pele, who scored 1,283 goals in his career, is a bit special.

Yesterday afternoon in Ballymun I watched grown men peer excitedly into the blustery sky as if expecting to see a miraculous vision. In the gym at Trinity Comprehensive School, as teacher Paddy O'Reilly double-checked the itinerary, an MC was urging the audience to remain in their seats. "The world's greatest footballer will be arriving shortly," he promised.

SMILE

Pulses were racing and the excitement had built to fever pitch by the time a helicopter hovered overhead. The flash of a distinctive smile was enough to confirm that, yes, Pele was here.

Beaming brightly, he floated through a guard of honour provided by the school's sports scholarships students. For a man who's lived his life to a soundtrack of public applause, Pele seemed genuinely surprised and pleased by the warmth of his Ballymun reception.

"Pele, you are our hero. Thank you very much for coming," said Fiona Gallagher, the school's deputy principal before presenting the visitor with a statue of Molly Malone. "Pele, there are as many stories told about you as there are of this woman."

The Brazilian ambassador told the audience: "Pele is the king. Pele is the real ambassador. When Pele scored his one thousandth goal he said to the whole country, 'Don't forget the children that need our help.' From that time on he is committed to helping children everywhere and that is what he's doing here."

And so it was in Ballymun that Pele launched his Goals For Life campaign as part of a day of events designed to raise funds for both Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin and the Little Prince Children's Hospital in Brazil.

WORK

Despite an itinerary that has seen him visit Mexico, New York and Tokyo in recent days, Pele was in expansive form, charming everyone, spreading his humanitarian message and happily sharing a few yarns with his eager public.

"I ask God to give me the power to never disappoint you," he told his audience. "Never disappoint the people who love me and make me welcome as you did today. And I have to thank God because normally people have to work. To survive they have to work. They don't like this work but they have to be there in the morning. But with me, God gave me a job that I love. Because I loved to play football."

There wasn't one person in the room who didn't relate to what Pele was telling them. Then, he went one better.

"Coincidentally, football today is the biggest family in the world," he noted. "We are the biggest family in the world. I think God has given me the opportunity to be in this family to work and to help the family.

"I started to work with kids and then I asked the people to put this project together. We didn't know each other but we became friends and put it together. I think God put you together on the same team as we are to protect the kids.

"We can have a better world in the future. That's the reason I thank God to be here and I hope we can stay together for a long time on the same team. Thank you very much."

Don Mullan, the Derry-born humanitarian and author who initiated the idea of having Pele visit Ireland for a twin hospital fundraiser, prompted Pele to talk about how he came to dedicate his 1,000th goal (at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro in November 1969) to the children of the world.

"First of all, I have to tell you the history of the goals," said the legend. "I never played as a striker. I played always in midfield. Then I started to come from the midfield and score a goal. I loved to score a goal. Then I have a reason to score more goals. I'm supposed to help the team and play in midfield.

"But always I'd kick the ball or head the ball and the goals would come. Then I was thinking, 'Why is God so good to me?' I thought maybe one day I'd have the answer. But now I have answer. These goals can be used to help the children. To make goals to help save lives. I think that was the reason I scored lots of goals."

The Brazilian mint cooperated with the project and created boxed sets of individually laser-marked medals (gold, silver and bronze) to commemorate each one of Pele's goals; 1,283 sets have been created and have been raising almost €2,000 a set for the charity.

Yesterday, under the supervision of the FAI's Derek O'Neill and Des Tomlinson, a number of young clubs collected their medals from the man himself. First up was Katie Carr (no relation) from Borrisokane, County Tipperary. The lads from the Brazilian Soccer School Dublin South-West (Futebol de Salao) presented Pele with one of their shirts. And both the Kinnegad Juniors and the gang from The Gingerman pub seemed untypically overawed.

STRIKER

Get Pele talking about goals and he lights up even brighter.

"My father was a striker who scored five goals with his head in one game," he recalled yesterday. "I never got this number to happen. The only record I never broke was my father's. Maybe one day I will get there."

Before arriving in Ballymun, Pele had been in Dunboyne in County Meath with FAI boss John Delaney who was clearly delighted to be giving a boost of the grassroots of the sport.

Earlier, Pele had attended a press conference at Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin where he said, "My family was very poor. My father was a football player so we had some support. We have a lot of families in Brazil worse off than us. Many times I went to play with Santos in South Africa and I saw the poverty. I went to China and I saw the poverty. In my first World Cup I was 17 years old. Then I have a lot of connection with kids. I don't know why. They love me today. Kids of five years old. At the airport they say, 'Look Mommy, Pele is there." This is a present of God.'

It's not often the media applaud an interviewee. Yesterday was a major exception. Pele didn't even have to open his mouth. He entered the room to clapping and left to more applause. And, somehow, it seemed fitting. The man oozes charisma and charm. And the hardbitten media pack knew that here was a sportsman who blended skill, power, technique, vision and courage in a never-before-seen alchemy of purpose.

And, better still, the man has a sense of humour.

"You know my name is Edson," he said. "Edson Arantes do Nascimento. My father they gave me Edson because of Thomas Edison when I was born in a small town. I was very proud because Thomas Edison was very important. Then in Sao Paolo where my father went to play, I started to play with the children in the street and they started to call me Pele. I was nine or ten years old. They called me Pele. In don't understand why. I started to fight with them. 'No, my name is Edson.' I went to school and the same group of kids still called me Pele. I fought with them and I got suspended for two days. They called my father and my mother. I didn't like the name. But today I love it."

"Pele is a short name," he adds. "They find Pele in the Bible in Hebrew. It's in Greek mythology, the black cat. They find it in Martinique. But nobody knows what it means."

Is it true that Giovanni Trapattoni marked you out of the game when Brazil met Italy? "I used to tell Trapattoni, 'You look like my wife. Wherever I go, you go. Go and play differently,' Pele quipped. He'd say, 'I have to mark you.' He was very difficult to play against. Very continental."

He added impishly: "I talked to the president (John Delaney) and he said, 'Trapattoni is here.' But I said, 'Then I won't go.'"

Pausing for dramatic effect, he continued: "But we are good friends now."

This being Ireland, there's the obligatory question about George Best. "I said before, George was one of the best players I saw in my life," says Pele. "I think he was a Brazilian boy. He was so skilful like a Latin player. He was one of the most brilliant players."

As with Best, everyone seems to have their own personal Pele moment.

An FAI veteran recalls how his father took him to see Goal! World Cup 1966, the first film to capture the drama of competitive football to full effect. "His shins were red raw after a match," said the coach. "Many teams tried to kick him out out of the game."

ATTENTION

Of course it was in the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden that Pele first caught the attention of football fans around the world, scoring six goals, including two in the final. All at the age of 17.

"When we won the World Cup, the King and his son they came on the field to shake our hands," he recalled. "Then I was thinking, 'The King has come to shake my hand. I want to know if my father knows that.' At that time we didn't have TV. I had to wait until the next day to say, 'Father, you saw me?' Now we have telephones. It's one of the things I compare with modern life."

The World Cup finals eight years earlier had been a different story. "Brazil lost in Maracana," recalled Pele. "My father had prepared a big party because all the Brazilians thought Brazil was going to win. I saw my father cry. I said 'What happened?' He said, 'Brazil lost.' That was my first World Cup. Then eight years later, I played in my first World Cup. When I was 16 I played my first international against Argentina. Then I was selected. Only God can explain that.

"It's wonderful to see that my goals are going to save lives."

p Pele - Goals For Life can be viewed at www.golspelavida.org.br

- Eamon Carr