Salve Jorge, a popular restaurant in Historico Centro district in Brazil’s Sao Paulo, pays homage to the famous ‘George’s’ from across the world. Literally meaning ‘Hail George’, the colonial-styled watering hole displays rows of framed illustrations of well-known namesakes – the saint, Shaw, Harrison, even George of the Jungle -- across its many walls and stairwells, yet the one image that stands out is a black-and-white photograph of a man standing on a football field. He’s in Brazil’s colours, one foot on a ball in easy control. One hand is at the waist and with the other, he’s holding a hard-bound book, intently poring over it. Amid the bustling waiters and patrons looking for a table, the picture simply stops you in your tracks.
For someone who was probably among the most-photographed personalities of the last century, alongside the Beatles, Elvis, Monroe, Loren and Ali, this was perhaps a never-before capture, even for Pele. The image is yet another example of the fine specimen of an athlete that Pele was, the near-perfect musculature lending to him a ready handsome-ness and beauty in power. It was this physical being that probably even rivalled Muhammad Ali’s more talked about one. Till date there isn’t a footballer, or an athlete for his sport, as physically perfect as Pele was. Yet, what sets the image apart, making it special, is the idea to thrust a book into his hands. It makes him transcend from a legendary genius footballer to something of a cultural treasure. Pele was never known to be a man of letters, and it may have been an accounting journal for all we know, yet the composition symbolises the idea how football is – or once was – so deeply connected to the literature and arts of Brazil.
