When I marked Pelé

When we first heard that we would be playing against Pelé, we had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was not a dream. We were thinking, “Is this for real? Is Pelé really going to play against us?”

- GAUTAM SARKAR

Then with the New York Cosmos, he came to play against us in Kolkata in 1977 as part of an Asian tour. It was the greatest moment of my football career. We held them to a 2-2 draw, and we were actually leading 2-1 heading into the dying moments of the game. The credit goes to the entire Mohun Bagan team.

It almost did not happen. Because the ground was wet, and Pelé’s insurance agents were wary of letting him play. He told them no, saying that he had never seen such a huge, fervent crowd and that he could not disappoint them. The crowd that day was in lakhs, and there was a sea of people outside the stadium, too. He played all 90 minutes.

I was lucky that I got the chance to mark him. I stopped him a few times, but he is Pelé, you know, he is un-markable. My thinking was clear. The moment I saw him as an opponent, I tried to forget that he was Pelé. I told myself that I was no less than any player in the world, that I was also someone.

There is a photo that was published by the Anandabazar Patrika at the time, the only such photo, which shows me trying to tackle Pelé. That picture, I am told, is displayed at the Cosmos club in New York even now.