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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark Donlon

Rare footage of Pele playing in friendly match at Dalymount Park resurfaces

Rare footage of Pele playing for Santos at Dalymount Park back in 1972 has resurfaced on social media to give Irish football fans Samba fever as Brazil go in search of a sixth World Cup win.

Brazil legend Pele last week hit the headlines as reports claimed he had been admitted to palliative care, however family members recently stated that he would be leaving hospital once he was feeling better.

The initial news sent shockwaves throughout the world of football; with Brazil's current crop of players chasing a sixth World Cup crown in Qatar, Pele is remembered by so many as the man who played a big part in three of their previous wins in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

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In 1958 -at just 17 years of age - he burst onto the scene, and with the eyes of the world upon him he scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 quarter-final win over Wales.

He followed that up with a hat-trick against France in the semi-final before bagging a brace in the decider against Sweden to claim the ultimate glory on the world stage for the first time.

With two more tournament wins in 1962 and 1970, Pele and Brazil became synonymous with success and their status as international football's aristocrats was strengthened latterly with two further World Cup wins coming in 1994 and 2002.

Pele spent 18 years playing for Santos in his native Brazil, with that spell coming to an end in 1974 as he moved to the New York Cosmos.

However, two years prior, the Brazilian legend was in Dublin as Santos faced a Bohemians/Drumcondra outfit in a friendly played in front of a heaving crowd at Dalymount Park - and a video containing highlights has once again seen the light of day.

The footage was unearthed from YouTube and remarkably accrued just over 800 views on the video sharing website since its upload almost two years ago.

However, Twitter user and regular poster of archive footage KillianM2 brought the footage to a whole new audience by sharing the video on the social networking site over the weekend.

The video features a highlight package from Santos' 3-2 friendly win over the Bohemians/Drumcondra side, with Pele featuring prominently in attack.

The crystal-clear footage shows Dalymount Park bouncing in typical fashion, with the packed Connaught Street terrace still standing and brimming with matchgoers.

Earlier this year, work began on the demolition of the Connaught St terrace after it had been out of action for an extended period of time.

With Pele a star attraction, the visiting team were well-versed in playing friendlies against European sides as Santos looked to cash in on the striker's pulling power.

Days prior to the Dublin friendly, Santos had been England to take on Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

There, Royden Prole and Liam Rapple negotiated terms with Santos - including a £1,100 fee for Pele - and the friendly date was set.

Edu opened the scoring for Santos on the day before the 30,000-strong crowd thought they might see a famous win as Tommy Hammill and Johnny Fulham scored to make it 2-1.

But the Brazilian side's class eventually showed and late susbtitute Alcindo notched a brace to hand them the win.

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