Chennai: The year was 1977. It was a different world, yet it was the same.
The world was largely an analogue one – computers were in their infancy, television had just started to make its headway into the households, no square tablets in the palms of peopl’s hands, nor did people had access to videos of great athletes and their magnificent performances.
But the love for the beautiful game, and indeed for the global superstars that made the green plot of land their very own canvas, remained the same.
The Dumdum Airport (now christened Netaji Subhash Chandra International Airport) in Calcutta felt like a stadium around midnight of September 22, 1977–Pele landed in the town– along with his teammates from the New York Cosmos, who were to play an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan towards the end of a goodwill tour of Asia.
For the City of Joy, it was a little matter of entertaining a galaxy of superstars like World Cup-winning Brazilian Carlos Alberto Torres and Italian player Giorgio Chinaglia.
The sole spotlight, however, was on one man – the King, the Emperor–none other than legendry Pele.
Former India international Subrata Bhattacharya, who led Mohun Bagan that afternoon on September 24, 1977, recalled all the excitement around that match.
“The entire credit (for Pele’s visit) should go to Dhiren De (Mohun Bagan official). He was the one who took the initiative to bring Cosmos and Pele to India,” he said.
“When we first came to know that we’d play against Pele, we were all very excited. Cosmos were a very good team, and they even had other World Cuppers like Carlos Alberto too. We were so overwhelmed that we even stopped our warm-up before the match just so that we could watch him.”
The late Subhas Bhowmick, the former India striker, was also on the pitch that day against New York Cosmos and was completely awestruck.
“I never thought we were competent enough to play against him. He was the King, and we were ordinary subjects of the game. It was a privilege that I, at least, didn’t deserve. His ball control, heading, right footers and ability to bring down any defence on its knees was absolutely extraordinary”, Subhas Bhowmick said.
“Time and again, he rewrote the grammar of football. We just watched in awe,” Bhowmick had said in an interview.
The match itself almost never happened if some reports are to be believed.
First, there was the matter of around Rs 17 lakhs which the organisers doled out to have the King come to India and play. To make things more uncertain, Pele himself was reportedly not too pleased with the ground, which had taken some battering in the Bengal monsoon.
However, the mass hysteria that ensued once the Emperor set foot in the City of Joy was enthralling, to say the least.
