By Michael DaSilva

THE Pele versus Santos football rivalry will intensify on Thursday with the staging of four matches featuring Pele and Santos teams in different age-group categories, as Pele Football Club celebrates its 45th anniversary.All four matches will be played at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) beginning at 14:00hrs with Pele Under-15 team tackling their Santos counterparts.
From 15:00hrs, Pele Under-17 side will face off with Santos Under-17s and from 16:00hrs, Pele Overseas Masters will engage Santos Masters.

The feature game on the day’s programme will bring together Pele Elite Reserves and Santos senior team from 17:00hrs.
Pele FC was founded on July 18, 1971 by former national player and coach Lennox `Mullen’ Arthur at the Albouystown YMCA and almost immediately after its formation, the club rose to supremacy, dominating football locally at all levels.
The club’s first president, the late Frank Watson in whose name the Under-15 and Under-17 tournaments were staged last Saturday, was a Guyana Airways pilot, who, while flying to a destination in the interior, crashed into a mountain and until today, neither his remains nor that of the aircraft he was flying have been found.
According to Arthur, while playing for Santos FC which was also founded in the Albouystown community, he got the desire to branch off and form a new club and as such, he scouted for talent that will make the club one of the best in Guyana. So every time there was a school tournament, he would attend and scout for talent.
In the end, he recruited among others, Patrick `Labba’ Barton, Wendell Manifold, Keith `Bumpy’ Layne, Linden Carter, Monty Wilson, Clyde `Oiler’ Watson and his twin Colin Watson, Orin Fanfair, Alfred Harrison, Alfred Morrison, Keith Cadogan, Eric Smith, the late `PT’ Gregory Stewart, Rodwell `Tarzan’ Anderson and Ashton among others.
Arthur said on identifying the club’s members he had a difficulty with coming up with a name for the club and he asked the players to come up with a name but they could not, so he suggested Pele, as the famous Brazilian king’ Pele had just retired from International football and because `king’ Pele was a member of the Brazilian team Santos he mentioned the name Pele for the club and immediately, all the players agreed on the name and hence the formation of Pele,
Since its formation, Pele FC has been a force to be reckoned with locally as the players probably have won all the major tournaments since 1971.
Arthur left Pele in 1979 and formed Strike Again FC, but one year later he returned to Pele FC and continued to climb the ladder of success.
Prior to his leaving the club in 1979, Arthur and the executive of Santos FC arranged a meeting with officials of the Brazilian Embassy here in Guyana for the embassy to sponsor a tournament for the Brazilian Embassy Cup and the officials agreed to do so, since Santos was named after a Brazilian club and Pele was named after `king’ Pele.
The first year the two teams met for the cup was in 1973 when Santos took the lien on the trophy with a 2-0 victory.
However, the following three years, under the captaincy of Wendell Manifold, Pele prevailed, winning the fourth and final encounter by a whopping 5-0 margin.
That Cup was never played for again and that is why Thursday’s feature match between Pele Elite Reserves and Santos Senior team will be an intriguing affair that should not be missed.
Meanwhile, today, overseas-based Pele FC members will be distributing schoolbags with school supplies to youths in need of additional support.
Tomorrow, the overseas-based players will conduct a Coaches seminar for 25 specially selected coaches and will also hold a soccer camp at the GFC ground for youths from primary schools. Football balls and bag packs as well as meals and refreshments will be provided.