Coach Izilien recalls encounter with Santos FC in 1969

Former coach of the Golden Eaglets and Super Falcons, Godwin Izilien, has revealed how he stopped Edson Arantes do Nascimento, otherwise known as Pele and his dreaded Santos FC from doing much damage to the Midwestern selected team in 1969, when they clashed at Ogbe Stadium, Benin City.

The Nigeria civil war was on then, with sounds of bomb, grenade and gun ravaging the Midwest and the Eastern region, when Pele led Santos FC to Benin City on invitation of then Military Governor of the Midwestern region, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Ogbemudia.

Izilien, who led the Super Falcons to win the African Women Championship (AWC) title in Johannesburg in 2004, revealed while speaking on TV show, that the match in 1969 gave him a clear picture of how skillful and disciplined Pele was as a footballer.

“The match was scheduled for a 3.30pm, but the stadium was opened from 10:00a.m.,” Izilien recall. “Ogbe Stadium was newly commissioned then, and it was filled up at 2p.m. with a lot of people stuck outside the stadium as they were unable to get in.

“I also remember then that some football fans came from neighbouring towns such as Abudu, Agbor, Asaba, Onisha and some other regions controlled by the Biafran soldiers. They sneaked into Benin City to watch Pele and his Santos FC played. Even before the match started, many of the fans had already concluded that Pele would demolish the Midwestern selected team with as many as 10-0.

Izilien continues: “I was the captain of the Midwestern selected team, and under five minutes, we were 2-0 down. We came up with a trick, pretending that one of our players was injured. That gave me an opportunity to counsel my teammates. I told them that if we should allow Santos FC to continue that way, we may concede 20-0 and above. I told them that the only way to avoid heavy defeat in front of our fans was to pick on the Brazilian players one by one.

“But the biggest challenge was, who will mark a dangerous Pele? As the team captain, I volunteered to mark him (Pele). I devised a means to go hard on him within the limit of the laws of the game because Pele was very skillful. At a point, Pele became angry with some of my tackles, and he came on me speaking Portuguese and I was speaking English. People started laughing because I didn’t understand what he was saying.

“The game continued and Pele had a pass and I gave him another hard tackle. Both of us went down. The referee, Augustine Alisha, came and warned both of us. This, in a way, reduced the pressure on us. Pele went to his own half and started distributing the ball instead of unleashing series of attacks on us. We were very happy. The first half ended 2-0 in Santos’ favour.

“In the second half, we were lucky to have a free kick, and ‘Warri boy’ Titus Okere, scored to make it 2-1. That brought joy to everyone inside Ogbe stadium. The match was historic in the sense that it brought so many people together once again since the civil war began in 1967. We forgot all our problems at that moment. Before Pele left the pitch in the 76th minutes, he dribbled his way into our defence area and clipped the ball above my head. If I had used force on the ball, it would have been an own goal. What I did was to control the ball into a corner, and Pele was shocked to see an intelligent local player in an obscure area like Benin then. As he made his way out of the pitch, Pele threw his jersey on me in appreciation of my intellectual display of football. We later met in the house of the Esama, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion,” he stated.

Izilien stated that he was sad following the demise of Pele. “I feel sad that we lost a natural footballer. Pele was a gifted player, and he was never involved in any drug scandal throughout his playing career.”

Pele, who won three World Cup titles for Brazil, died on December 29, 2022, and was buried yesterday. (The Guardian: Text, excluding headline)

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