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Speid, Jureidini tell Jamaican love affair with Pelé
December 30, 2022
Jamaica Football Federation technical committee chairman Rudolph Speid and Harbour View Football Club general manager Clyde Jureidini are contending that football legend Pele's visit to Jamaica helped to cement the island's football culture, while also endearing the Brazil brand of the sport to Jamaicans.
Pele, who passed away yesterday at the age of 82 and who is widely regarded as one of the best footballers in history, played a friendly match with his Brazilian outfit Santos against a Cavalier Invitational at the National Stadium in 1971 a year after Brazil had won the World Cup in Mexico. Speid argues that it was the trip that impacted Jamaicans.
"Nineteen seventy was the first World Cup that was televised globally and then Pele came here and (Brazilian) Jorge Pena came here to coach. So we were stuck with the Brazilian DNA.
"He (Pele) became the superstar and why the sport is such a global (phenomenon), almost like a religion now at this stage, becoming the biggest sport in the world. He was the one that transcended the sport," Speid told STAR Sports.
He noted that one of the games had an iconic moment, as Jamaican Billy Perkins tackled Pele, which was met with boos by the spectators at the National Stadium.
"Everyone can remember the moment when Billy Perkins tackled him, and he probably thought the crowd would cheer him and say 'Yes, good tackle', but they were saying 'You idiot, why did you tackle him' and he (Pele) did come off afterwards. Everybody was upset that the great man didn't get to finish the game," Speid recalled.
It was also seared in the memory of Jureidini, as well as the other time that Pele played in Jamaica in 1975 as a member of the New York Cosmos, being a global ambassador for football in the latter stages of his career.
"Perkins lived down the road from me in Harbour View. He was someone that I knew. He was one of the biggest football idols in Harbour View that I grew up under. So that resonated with me seeing him come here and play," Jureidini remembered.
Speid said it was the 1971 visit that bonded Jamaicans to Brazil and their jogo bonito style of football, which is why he believes that bond is eternal.
"You can understand that was where the love affair started, and it is those circumstances that Jamaicans are such frequent supporters of Brazil and I don't think it will ever stop in the future. He became why the sport is now almost like a religion at this stage, becoming the biggest sport in the world," Speid said.
