Brentford’s CEO Jon Varney had the chance to meet Pele in very different circumstances some time ago 2013.
It came when Jon was working at a company called Pitch where he was responsible for organising all of Brazil’s friendly matches around the world.
“One match I organised was Brazil v Portugal, effectively Neymar v Ronaldo, which was played, of all places, in the New England Patriots Stadium in Boston”.
“We invited Pele and Eusebio who were great friends and I was privileged to spend a little bit of time with them before the match.
It was like royalty coming into the room but Pele was absolutely charming and he had time for absolutely everybody.
It didn’t matter if they were the people who thought they were the most important in the room or the waiters and service staff.
I didn’t see him once turn down a request for a photograph or an autograph”.
Pele met a young Neymar before the game.
