No football clinic during Pele visit

Kolkata: Brazilian legend Pele's health won't permit him for a football clinic but the three-time World Cup winner will inspire the budding footballers with an interactive session at his team hotel during his three-day visit to the city beginning October 11.

"He was hospitalised a few weeks back so to come to the field and play with the kids was a strict no-no from his agents," an official on behalf of the organisers of Pele's trip, Multicon Group and NSHM Knowledge Campus, said here today.

To make up for this, the organisers will arrange a session titled, 'Pele and the Masterclass' at his hotel on October 13.

There will be another interaction with the students of NSHM Knowledge Campus titled 'Inspire the Champion in You' on October 12.

Multicon Group and NSHM Knowledge Campus, meanwhile, felicitated the 1977 Mohun Bagan team who played out a 2-2 draw against the Pele's team of New York Cosmos in front of a packed 80,000 Eden crowd on a rain soaked September 24, 1977.

Remembering the match, the Mohun Bagan team members present on the occasion -- captain Subrata Bhattacharya, Shibaji Banerjee, Prasun Banerjee, Compton Dutta, Shankar Banerjee, Bidesh Bose, Gautam Sarkar, Manas Bhattacharya, Biswajit Das, Dilip Palit, Dilip Sarkar, Shyam Thapa, Pradip Chowdhury, Subhas Bhowmick and Sudhir Karmakar -- echoed in unision that the result had changed the fortunes of the team who went on to win a triple crown (Shield, Rovers, Durand).

Walking down the memory lane, Bhowmick said: "We're going through a miserable time in 1977 after losing to East Bengal. Then came the news that Pele is coming and everybody joked that we would concede at least half a dozen goals."

"Our coach PK Banerjee told us to play defensively and everyone showed great character, in fact we would have won had referee LN Ghosh did not give the penalty, which was never a foul.

"If Donald Bradman is god of cricket and Jesse Owens is god of athletics, then Pele is surely the god of football," Bhowmick added.