World Cup 60 years on

WITH all the World Cup excitement, I recall 60 years ago to listening to the BBC World Service commentary on one of the greatest finals.
It was June 1958, long before television came to Malaya. We had to access the broadcast on our "powerful" impressive looking, sitting-room centrepiece, eight-valve Philips radio. For "quality" reception, it had a wire carrying an external aerial stretched over our roof.
Through all the strange disturbances, interferences and hissing short-wave frequency noises, the commentator's screams were especially loud and animated each time the ball was with ... and it was a new name on the world football scene. That name was "Pele"!
It was in that World Cup in Sweden, Pele made his debut on the international stage at 17 years of age. The rest is, of course, legendary.
Brazil defeated host nation Sweden 5-2 to win its first World Cup.
A few days earlier, in the semifinal against France, Pele put on a show of offensive brilliance against the second best team in the tournament, scoring three amazing goals. The French team was left dumbfounded at their inability to contain the youngest football "genius".
Pele and his teammate, Vava, scored two goals each in the final. The commentator himself sounded to choke as the entire Brazilian team wept upon receiving the Jules Rimet Cup as the best team in the world.
Rueben Dudley
Petaling Jaya