7 visits to the legend to Dubai

A strong relationship linked the Emirates and Pele .. It began with victory

The late Pele mediates Emirates Airlines flight attendants.

From the source

Brazilian legend Pele, whose death was announced the day before yesterday, has been associated with the UAE through a close relationship for 49 years, since his first visit to the country in 1973, when playing a friendly match against Al-Nasr was the starting point for the relationship of one of the best players in the history of football in the UAE.

The “three-time world champion” visited the country for the first time with the Santos team in 1973 when he played a friendly match against Al-Nasr in the meeting that was held at the current location of Rashid bin Hamdan Hall in Al-Nasr Club, and it was called at the time the “Sports Stadium”, and the meeting was attended by a large number of fans to the extent Many sat on the grass, and among the attendees at the time were His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the late Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the match ended with Santos winning 4-1, and the goal of «Brigadier General » The player Awad Mubarak.

Two years after that visit, Pele left the Santos team, and moved to the American New York Cosmos, with whom he stayed for about two years, before announcing his retirement from football.

The number of visits of the Brazilian legend to the Emirates has reached seven times, to play exhibition matches or for advertising purposes.

Pele visited the Emirates again in 1982 and had a tour in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and in 1994 he attended Al-Nasr Club, and he honored the youths of the "Brigadier" junior league champions in the same year, while Pele's fourth visit was in 1999, and he renewed his visit to the country in 2001, As he toured the corridors of the Football Association building, and he returned in 2007 and visited Abu Dhabi.

On the other hand, Pele became a global ambassador for Emirates Airlines in 2014 during a press conference in Dubai, after Emirates Airlines announced a contract with him before the start of the World Cup in Brazil.

And the "late legend" had expressed his amazement at the tremendous growth witnessed by the emirate and the great achievements it had achieved, as he said during the conference at the time: "Dubai has established a high reputation on the world stage, and it has evolved a lot from what it was when I visited it for the first time in the seventies. I see Now a thriving city with a developed infrastructure for tourism and business, and has the ability to welcome and communicate with the world.

The irony is that Pele brought back memories of the Santos match against Al-Nasr, when former Al-Nasr players Mohamed Cahors and Mohamed Al-Kous presented him with a memorial photo that brought them together on the field in 1973.

• Pele was a global ambassador for Emirates Airlines in 2014.

• He visited the country for the first time with the Santos team in 1973.

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