SME – Written by: Muhammad Al-Joker
The relegation of the Brazilian football team Santos to the second league after 111 years was the talk of the “Samba” country after its recent loss in the league.. The team’s fans could not bear it and expressed their extreme sadness in several pictures..
We felt sad just as they were sad, because this team has an unforgettable story with us. On February 26, 1973, a very important match was held in Dubai. Al-Nasr team, “the dean of our clubs,” played with the famous Brazilian Santos, and lost that day 1-4, and Al-Nasr’s only goal was scored by Awad Mubarak. The Brazilians took with them all the key players, including six players from the team that won the World Cup in 1970 in Mexico, led by the jewel Pele. Among these players were Edu, Jair, Carlos Alberto (captain of Santos and his country’s national team), Al Sindo, Polvina and others.
The Santos club management had requested $30,000 for one match during its tour in the region, and they had already received the amount. Ten thousand dollars of this amount was allocated to the star Pele, and the remainder of it was allocated to the club and the rest of the players. Pele received this amount for every match within the Santos team, and before Upon his arrival in Dubai, Santos played several matches, defeating the Saudi team 3-0. He also played in Doha and won against Al-Ahly of Qatar, and played in Cairo against Al-Ahly, and also tied against Al-Qadisiyah of Kuwait 1-1. Al-Qadisiyah’s goal was scored by Jassem Yaqoub, as a car was given to him by a Kuwaiti businessman.
During the historic visit to the country at that time, Land Rover cars bearing the image of the Brazilian team came out of Dubai, touring the country, in order to promote the match, which we consider the beginning of our relationship with Brazilian football, and we will return to the topic later because the Brazilians have an imprint on the development of Gulf football… and no matter what we say, we will not give the event its due when it visited us. Santos It is enough that the legend Pele came out happy after the event of the team’s visit to “Danat Al Dunya” and he repeated it seven times later. Of course it had to do with marketing and advertising. Truly, they were beautiful memories. We will not forget them and Santos’ landing was “disastrous” and not an easy matter, and the team’s fans will not forget it, like this. It is football… joy and sadness. And the God of the intent behind.
