Pele's war-stopping memory
"I learned from my father that football must be a tool to bring good things," Pele once wrote on Twitter in 2020. "I apply that advice to my life, using my talents to motivate promote love and peace. One of my greatest prides was stopping the war in Nigeria in 1969, during a tour of Santos."
In the 1960s, with great attraction from Pele, Santos traveled the world. In early 1969, they went to Nigeria in the midst of the country's civil war, to play a friendly match in the capital Lagos. Santos was so loved that the parties agreed to a ceasefire on the day the Brazilian team arrived. The match between Santos and local team Super Eagles on January 26 ended with a 2-2 draw, in which Pele scored twice.
However, some other documents claim that the armistice came only nearly two weeks later in the city of Benin, bordering Biafra. Santos' website confirms that the local government allows people to take a holiday to watch Pele play, in the match Santos beat Nigeria 2-1 on February 4. They even built a bridge connecting Benin with Biafra so both sides could witness Pele's performance.
"We played friendly in Benin City, the epicenter of the civil war," Pele wrote in his 2007 autobiography. "That historic day is considered 'The day Santos ceased the war. totally true or not, but the fact is that the Nigerians stopped firing that day. What I'm most certain of is that Santos won 2-1 thanks to goals from Edu and Toninho Guerreiro."
According to many documents, the brutal conflict broke out in 1967 between Nigeria and a breakaway country, Biafra. The civil war stemmed from ethnic strife, which left many people dead and many others displaced from their homes. On January 13, 1970, this war ended.
"Pele's influence was amazing," the late defender Ramos Delgado, Pele's teammate at the time, told the Times. "The two governments have stopped fighting so people can watch Santos kick. In 72 hours, football is more important than war."
The Times reported in 2005 that it was the first time the two sides had stopped fighting in more than two years since the war broke out. But the matter was still controversial, when Nigerian blogger Oloajo Ayegbayo later released evidence that the civil war stopped not because of the presence of Pele and Santos.
Ayegbayo tried to reconstruct the story using the local newspapers at the time, but he did not see any mention of a ceasefire. Benin's bridge may be open, but that is customary on football match days.
Although the truth has not been clarified, the story of Pele and Santos is still mythical, making the "King of Football" even greater. This anecdote also marked the birth of a song often used by Santos fans to promote, including the line "Only Santos can stop the war".
Santos is the club Pele has played for the longest time in his career, from 1956 to 1974 with 618 goals in 636 games. After Pele's death on December 29, Santos President Andres Rueda announced that the club temporarily hung the number 10 shirt in honor of the "King of Football".
