Pelé is an icon of the racial struggle for a pair of Nigerian refugees in the United Kingdom

The Nigerian Geoff Ijomah is amused by the question whether Pelé (1940-2022) can be considered an icon of the struggle of blacks in society. For the 57-year-old psychiatrist, who lives in Lincoln, England, the historic Brazilian player, who died at the end of last year, was much more than that of a professional athlete.

“I have a medical degree because Pelé showed me that it was possible for a young black man living in Glasgow in the 1970s to be successful,” he explains.

“The influence that Pelé had on my life was enormous. If you are a black child growing up outside your country, in a different culture, you need examples that show you how far you can go. He stood out above everyone else. Always was an inspiration,” agrees trade unionist Ude Joe-Adgwe, 55, also born in Nigeria. He moved to the UK with his family when he was a child.

After the King’s death, on the 29th, they remembered the effort they made to meet him. They paid around £900 (about R$5,600 at current exchange rates) to attend an event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, in September 2016.

The two wanted to tell the number 10 the importance he had in their lives.

“Pelé was humble, attentive and gave me the image of being someone very simple. But there was no time to talk”, observes Ijomah.

Ijomah and Adgwe were born in Nigeria in the Biafra region, which had pretensions to being an independent state, which triggered a civil war between May 1967 and January 1970. The Biafra War, as it became known, is marked in the mythology of the career of skin.

A Santos tour of the region in 1969 would have brought the conflict to a standstill. According to this version, Pelé interrupted the war, which would have caused Pelé to interrupt a war for a few days. Controversial, the version is not supported by researchers on the subject.

The families of the two Nigerians were in the UK when the fighting broke out and were unable to return.

“The 1970 World Cup had a huge impact on my life. It was the first time we saw football on color TV. And Pelé’s image stood out”, says Ijomah.

He recalls that, on UK broadcasters in that decade, not many successful black sportsmen were featured. It was Pele and one more.

“There was also Muhammad Ali, but without the same prominence as Pelé”, he adds.

“It was rare to see international games in the UK and other European countries. The exception was Pelé. He was always the main name”, emphasizes Ude Joe-Adgwe.

To the refugee community in Scotland, the people Adgwe and Ijomah lived with, the King of football was more than the image of a black man capable of being a superstar in the world’s most popular sport.

He was prominent in an era before the Race Relations Act, a law enacted by the British government in 1976 to curb racial discrimination. Until then, signs were common in bars and restaurants warning about the prohibition of the entry of different ethnic groups. That wasn’t a crime.

The two Nigerians saw signs several times that said “Irish, Negroes and Dogs” were not allowed to enter.

The backdrop was tension in the region in the 1970s and 1980s. The first black man to be called up to the England squad was winger Viv Anderson, from Nottingham Forest. This only occurred in 1978. Even after that, black athletes who managed to draw attention, such as winger John Barnes, were targets of constant racial attacks in stadiums.

Ijomah and Adgwe received Pelé’s death with surprise. They knew he was in the hospital, but they believed he would leave. The tributes in the British press and among fans showed, even for the youngest who had never seen the Brazilian on the pitch, his place in history.

“I had already heard that Pelé never played in Europe, never played in the UK… But when he died, it was very significant. The younger generations saw it. My nephews noticed and said to me: ‘Ah, that was Pelé!’ as if the King of England had died”, observes Ijomah.