Inside Track: Pele was a marked man at the 1966 World Cup finals

Brazil were strong favourites to win the 1966 World Cup. They were on to a hat-trick, having won in Sweden and 1958 and Chile, four years later.

Pele, still to take his leave of his teenage years, announced himself on the world stage in the first of those finals. He was playing alongside some of the great names in Brazil’s history, the likes of Vava, Garrincha, Zito and Santos.

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The Sweden finals were unusual, maybe even remarkable, in that the four countries playing in what were known at the time as the Home Internationals, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, had qualified.

Peter McParland, an FAI Cup winner with Dundalk six years earlier, was in the North sided and distinguished himself by scoring five goals to take joint-fourth place in the table alongside Vava. France’s Juste Fontaine was best with 13.

(A warning to all soccer players: don’t overdo the celebrations when there’s a goal. Brazil did after Vava scored in one of the preliminaries. He was immediately surrounded by all of his teammates, many of them jumping on top of others. The pyramid collapsed, and when the players got back on their feet, Vava was lying prone on the ground, out for the count. It took him five minutes to come around.)

Brazil beat the home country in the final, Pele scoring one of the goals in a 5-1 win. However, when Brazil retained the Jules Rimet four years later, he was an onlooker at the final with Czechoslovakia having sustained an injury in one of the preliminaries.

Brazil weren’t in a good place going to the 1966 finals, England playing host for the first time. They had changed their manager, Feola taking over from Moreira.

The new man had come pressure before naming his squad, many clubs wanting to have a player, or players, included. He put his faith in a number of veterans, among them Garrincha, who was long past his sell-by date.

Pele, however, was still knocking in the goals, and while in partnership with Garrincha, never figured on a losing Brazil team. Despite all that had happened before they had left for the finals, Brazil were still the team to beat.

They beat Bulgaria in the opening match, but in a sign of things to come, Pele was kicked around the field, getting little protection from the referee.

He was forced to miss the next game with Hungary – played on this day 59 years ago, and won 3-1 by the European side – but was back for the meeting with Portugal, played at Goodison Park.

Here, again, one of the game’s greatest, was the target of more brutal tackling, and after the game, which Portugal won 2-1, Pele swore he would never play in the World Cup again.

He didn’t keep his word. The 1970 finals in Germany were Pele’s fourth, and he was again on the mark scoring four times in the finals, helping Brazil, and himself, take a third title. For the record, England won the 1966 renewal.