Pele was invited to light the Olympic pyre on Friday at the Rio de Janeiro Games, but the Brazilian soccer great was checking with his sponsors to see if he is free to lead the torch ceremony at the Maracana Stadium.
“I have a contract that I am bound to fulfil,” Pele told Globo TV late on Tuesday, adding that he was consulting the US company that holds the rights to his brand name on whether he can take up the invitation from the Olympic organizing committee.
“As a Brazilian, I’d love to do it,” said the 75-year-old, who helped his country win the FIFA World Cup three times and would be launching the Games in the stadium where he scored his 1,000th goal in 1969.
Photo: EPA
Pele later told reporters that International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and the head of the Brazilian committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman had asked him to light the pyre and that he would have an answer today.
He said he would have to cancel a trip organized by his sponsors.
Pele, regarded as the greatest player of all time, played in four World Cups and is the only player to have won it three times: in 1958 in Sweden, when he was just 17, in 1962 in Chile and in 1970 in Mexico.
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