For Gillie Seymour, watching Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team over and over at the old Marquee Cinema was life changing.
For Renard Moxam, a young up-and-coming footballer at the time, seeing Pele’s performances was inspirational.
The two men, who were among the many Caymanians that got to meet and shake hands with the great man during a visit to the island in 1995, are among millions of footballers worldwide who have been inspired by Pele.
And they joined the flow of tributes from the football world to the Brazilian legend who died last week at the age of 82.
Thousands of mourners lined the streets of his home city of Santos for a sombre funeral procession Tuesday. And Cayman’s football community were among millions of fans and players around the world to pay their respects to the game’s greatest exponent.
Over the past month, countless column inches have been dedicated to the debate over whether Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, who lifted the World Cup with Argentina last month, is the best player the sport has seen.
But for those with longer memories, there is little doubt.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento – known to the world as Pele – is arguably the one true ‘goat’, the greatest of all time, and an icon to generations of future players.
Alfredo Whittaker, the president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, who watched Messi lift the famous trophy in Qatar, said Pele was an example to the world as a footballer and as a human being.
“He represents the dream for every single young person that watched him play.”
Pele won the World Cup three times with Brazil, for whom he scored 77 goals in an unrivalled career.
Visit to Cayman
If Pele’s name has a special resonance in Cayman it is, at least partially, because he is one of a handful of genuine all-time greats to visit the islands.
Pele was in Grand Cayman for the Shell Caribbean Cup, which was hosted in Cayman in 1995. He also met players and coaches, signed autographs for countless children and fans and opened the Donovan Rankine field in East End.
Ernie ‘Gillie’ Seymour, founder of Cayman Athletic Sports Club, was among those to grab a picture and a word with the legend.
For Seymour, who named one of his sons Arantes, in honour of Pele, it was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with the great striker.
He took along his well thumbed copy of ‘Play Football with Pele’ – which he had bought from Hobbies and Books and used as an informal coaching manual – and got it autographed.
Seymour remembers back in the early ’70s, before television was common in Cayman and before live broadcasts of football were omnipresent, as they are today, he and his friends followed the game through magazines, newspapers and books.
When they showed ‘The World at Their Feet‘ – the story and highlights of Brazil’s World Cup triumph in 1970 – at the cinema, he was blown away.
“We watched it over and over and then went straight out to try all the tricks on the field.”
Pele’s influence spread far beyond his native Brazil and far beyond his own generation.
“I still teach the same fundamentals I got from reading and watching videos of Pele,” says Seymour.
While he is a huge fan of Messi in particular, he views Pele as the all-time icon of the sport, like Muhammed Ali in boxing or Bruce Lee in martial arts.
“Pele will always be the greatest,” he said.
Renard Moxam, Cayman’s first professional footballer, said Pele was a “great role model” for his generation.
He remembers watching him play in 1970 and being dazzled by that Brazil team.
“They won the World Cup playing a style of football that no-one had ever seen before.”
Moxam went on to play in the North American Soccer League for Toronto Metros just a few years after Pele had retired from a stint at the New York Cosmos.
“I guess it was a disappointment that I wasn’t there at the same time, but if I did play against him, I don’t think I would have got anywhere near him. I would have just had to watch and admire.”
Moxam agrees that Pele will go down as the greatest of all time.
“People forget how physical football used to be. People talk about Ronaldo and Messi but Pele will always be the best player ever. He played on pitches that were like cow patches and with defenders that would tackle you around your knees. Players today get a lot more protection. If you blow too hard on a player you get a yellow card.”
He believes Pele will be remembered for his contribution beyond the game, cutting through social and racial disparities to unite people through football.
He recalls a famous story about how Pele and his Santos team temporarily halted a civil war when they came to play in Nigeria in 1967.
A 48-hour ceasefire was agreed for the game.
Moxam also got to meet Pele during a reception at Grand Old House on his visit to Cayman in ’95.
He said Cayman was buzzing for the visit and Pele found time to meet with everyone and sign autographs.
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