Pelé and Maradona, the day two kings met in Rio de Janeiro

"Never listen when they tell you that you are the best. The day you feel the best you will cease to be" and "the physique is your work tool. From what I can see, you have a very good physique. Take care of him. In life there is time for everything, even being a player. There is time to go out, to have a drink, to smoke a cigarette, to stay up late, to eat a meal that one likes. But do it with balance. Always do what doesn't damage your physique because if you don't, it's all over.” 

These were just some of the pieces of advice that Pelé gave Diego Maradona on April 9, 1979, in Rio de Janeiro. It was the first time they got together. Pelé, already retired, had just played in a tribute to Zico. Diego was on his way to break it in the youth World Cup in Tokyo. His dream was to meet Pelé, then the best player in history. The only king. Only later in life would Maradona succeed him on the throne.

The journalist from El Gráfico Guillermo Blanco had arranged that meeting. “Nobody knew we were going to Rio. Not even the leaders of Argentinos Juniors”, Blanco reminds Página 12.

In the summer of that year, Blanco says, he had interviewed Diego at a Uruguayan spa. “It was the first time that the Maradona family went on vacation. I went to do a report on him, which ended up being Diego's first cover in El Gráfico, with his arms raised, at the Montevideo Centennial. Chitoro (Don Diego) was incredibly happy to be there. Diego told me that his dream was to meet Pelé. So we got to work to make that happen."

El Gráfico magazine was a journalistic steamroller in those days. Just as its editorial, Atlántida, played for the dictatorship, it also set the agenda for Sports journalism. Its incidence was worldwide. Its editorial staff was made up of the most prominent firms. At the weekly meeting, Blancó threw out the idea. “'If we make the note, it's a great goal,' I said. And we set out on a campaign. We contacted Tarlis Batista, the correspondent in Brazil, who was also a friend of Pelé's. He campaigned there and I here, with Diego. Once Pelé said that he accepted the match, we got into it. With all the infrastructure of El Gráfico it was achieved, above all by the management of Orcasitas (Osvaldo, emblematic journalist of that newsroom), who was the soul of El Gráfico: he organized everything. And on April 9, the note was made,” says Blanco.

On April 8, after a Huracán 1-Argentinos 3, Blanco and Diego left in a remís for the Ezeiza airport, where Don Diego, the photographer Ricardo Alfieri and his manager at the time, Jorge Cyterszpiler, were waiting. They settled in the Palace hotel, in Copacabana. The journalists in a double room and Maradona and his in a triple. “Look what those times were like when they didn't go to a suite. What's more, at dawn Cyterszpiler called me to ask if they could open the refrigerator in the room because Diego was thirsty”, he laughs.

Pelé waited for them in the mansion of billionaire Alfredo Saad. River view, helipad, security guards, gym. There he stayed when he traveled to Rio de Janeiro. “When he appeared, he avoided all of us and the first one he hugged was Don Diego. 'Hello, dad,' he said. With that 'hello, dad' he broke everything. From there, the talk, which lasted an hour, was wonderful, like a meeting of friends. Even Pelé played the guitar. And he gave advice to Diego. Many of those tips anticipated what would happen to Diego later, ”laments Blanco.

That note, which today is historic, was not the cover of edition 3106 of El Gráfico, which came out on April 17. "Exclusive: The Pelé-Maradona match", reads below, on the left. The main photo is for Víctor Galíndez, who on the 14th had recovered the WBA medium heavyweight title against Mike Rossman. "That is also part of what it was like at that time," he compares. None of the protagonists charged for the talk.

Blanco remembers that in those years “Pelé was considered the best in history. There were several princes, like Cruyff or Platini, but the successor, the king, was Diego, although only in 1986”.

With Pele dead, only Blanco remains as an eyewitness of that day. What could have been done earlier if it hadn't been for the fact that Diego could never travel to Brazil on Mondays, the day that suited the Brazilian best. “Only when he returned to the airport, Diego told me why he didn't want to go on Mondays, which was the day he was given off at the club after playing on Sundays, in Argentinos:“ Look, Guillermo. Do you know what happens? That Mondays are for Claudia, ”he told her with a smile.

“Only when he returned to the airport, Diego told me why he didn't want to go on Mondays, which was the day he was given off at the club after playing on Sundays, in Argentinos:“ Look, Guillermo.