Rot-Weiss Essen also mourns the death of probably the best player in history. Brazilian legend Pelé has died after a serious illness – he played at Hafenstraße in 1963.
World football is mourning the death of perhaps its greatest player. On Thursday, Brazil’s three-time world champion Pelé died in Sao Paulo at the age of 82. Rot-Weiss Essen also mourns the loss of one of its honorary members.
In recognition of his fantastic career, the French newspaper “Le Figaro” wrote: “Football has lost its king. Pelé was the sun of Brazil. His warmth, his light, his strength, his joy, his creativity. His legend transcends epochs. The essence of an artist.”
Meanwhile, Neymar leads the Selecao as a playmaker – the global star, who plays for Paris St Germain, is considered one of Pelé’s biggest fans. He bid a touching farewell to the man who “changed everything.”
Neymar wrote: “Before Pele, 10 was just a number. I read that sentence somewhere, at some point in my life. But that sentence, as beautiful as it is, is incomplete. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport. Pele changed everything. He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to black people, and above all: he made Brazil visible. Football and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He is gone, but his magic will remain. Pele is ETERNAL!!!”
Pele has been an honorary member of RWE since 2005
Eternally he will also be associated with the third division club Rot-Weiss Essen. For he has been an honorary member of RWE since 2005. Former Essen President Rolf Hempelmann presented the membership card and a certificate to the three-time World Champion, who was in Cologne for a trade fair appointment at the time.
Pelé emphasised when he was appointed in 2005: “It is a great honour for me to now belong to the club where the “Boss” (Helmut Rahn, editor’s note) played.” That makes two world champions in the guard of honorary members at RWE.
His only direct duel with RWE was on television. In 1970 – as RWE’s club historian Georg Schrepper remembers – he competed against Willi Lippens, another RWE legend, in a goal-shooting match in the “Aktuelles Sportstudio” and lost 2-1.
By the way,
Pelé – one of a total of 23 honorary members of the Essen team – actually played a match in the Georg Melches Stadium once. That was on 2 June 1963. However, it was not against RWE with FC Santos – but against FC Schalke.
Schalke had invited FC Santos to a test match and moved to the Essen stadium because the Essen stadium, which was more modern at the time, had more seats than the Glückauf-Kampfbahn in Gelsenkirchen. 47,918 seats and standing room were available at the time thanks to additional stands and special permits from the police. But even then Schalke was not very popular in Essen, so only about 15,000 fans came to see FC Santos win 2-1 – with a goal by Pelé, of course. Essen was happy that Pelé was playing at Hafenstraße for once, Schalke was annoyed, because nothing came of the big deal. The match is said to have brought in a loss of about DM 70,000.
After his death, RWE announced: “RWE will always honour Pelé’s memory and wishes his family and friends much strength during this difficult time.