BLETHER: Superstitious superstar Pele couldn’t play without ‘lucky’ shirt

Some football stories are legend. The following, I’m assured, are true . . .

I’ve not made a secret of the fact that I’m a great fan of Brazilian superstar Pele.

But it seems even the greatest player of all time (my assertion) had a bad spell.

During the mid-1960s, Pele’s club form with Santos had slumped badly, and it put supporters and staff members in a perplexed state.

Pele – real name Edson Arantes do Nascimento – himself was deeply worried and sought to know the cause of his downward spiral.

After a lot of analysis, he arrived at the fact he had given his ‘lucky’ shirt to a Santos fan, which, in turn, caused his demise.

So he hired a detective to get back what he had given away.

After an extensive search, the detective came up trumps and brought back the shirt.

Pele returned to his best from then on.

However, it later transpired that Pele’s ‘lucky’ shirt was never found and what the detective gave him was his jersey from a previous game.

As they say, it is all in the mind!