The day when Pelé almost signed for Paris
The story of Pelé in Paris emerges a year after the World Cup in Mexico. The best player on the planet had just put another star on Brazil’s crest. Guy Crescent, Paris’s audacious chairman, wanted to sign him before the club’s promotion to the first division. He decided to go and meet Santos FC’s executives and to come back with the king of the beautiful game. Bruno Crescent gives us his memories.
Bruno Crescent (son of Guy Crescent, Paris Saint-Germain chairman in 1971):
"My father told us that he was going to travel to Brazil. We asked him why, and he told us, 'I'm going to try and get Pelé.' Santos needed money. As PSG didn't have much of its own, my father's idea was to tell them that there was a fixed-price fee to loan the player out as well as interest that would be paid depending on stadium attendance, and he came back from his travels very happy and very confident. When some journalists questioned him about it after he had come back from Brazil, he said, 'I'm bringing Paris its second Eiffel Tower.'"
Michel Prost, the capital club's highest-profile striker at the time, remembers having stars in his eyes:
"Pelé was the first Brazilian to really get us all excited and expecting unbelievable things. Also, given that I played as a nine and he played as a ten, I would've had the chance to play with him, but at the last minute, he changed his mind and chose to stay in his homeland."
You can listen to this story in the episode of our podcast, Paris est Magique, that is dedicated to Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian players.