"He could do anything": when Pele came to HK
Former Hong Kong footballer Derek Currie on Friday hailed the late Pele as the greatest player of all time as recalled the excitement of Hong Kong fans who clambered for the chance to see the Brazilian play in the territory in the 1970s. Pele made several visits to Hong Kong with his Brazilian team Santos, most memorably scoring a hat-trick in just 15 minutes in a game against England's Newcastle United in 1972. Currie said he was first attracted to move to the city from Scotland in 1970 when he was told that he'd have a chance to play against Pele's Santos side, which was touring Hong Kong later that year. "I was mesmerised. I said: Pele? Everything went out of the window. Where do I sign?" he told RTHK's Annemarie Evans. "A chance to play against the greatest footballer of all time was just an offer you could not turn down and that's what took me to Hong Kong." Currie, who later went on to line up for the Hong Kong national team, played against Pele five times, four of them in Hong Kong and once in the United States. "The Hong Kong public knew of Pele and how good he was, particularly after the 1970 World Cup. It was still fresh in their minds. So obviously when he came in 1970 they were all clambering for tickets to watch him and there was just a wonderful, wonderful atmosphere to go on the field," Currie said. "In stature he was no different from anybody else. He just had a box of tricks up his sleeve. He actually knew before the ball came to him what he was going to do with the ball. Defenders didn't have a clue. "He could dummy the ball. He could trap the ball. He could shake his shoulders and send the defender the wrong way. He could do anything. He always came up with something different and that was the beauty of Pele: you never knew what was going to happen next."