The shirt Pele wore in Wales’ last match in a World Cup ended up being used by a Sunday league pub team in Swansea. It may have cost Mel Charles, the defender who swapped shirts with the 17-year-old in Gothenburg, a small fortune in latter years when such memorabilia would have been valuable; as it was, Charles, who played in era when the maximum wage was £20 a week, could not afford a new kit for the amateur side he managed and so reached into his stash of former international shirts.
Should, say, Joe Rodon or Chris Mepham end up with Lionel Messi’s top in a potential quarter-final in December, it is unlikely to meet with a similar fate. But it is one illustration of how times have changed since Wales last graced the global stage. In 1958, 25 percent of the teams were the Home Nations; there was a British pot in the draw. And if that ensured they could not face each other in the group stage then, now, as in Euro 2016, Wales are pooled with England. They topped that pool on their way to the semi-finals and a small country have shown they can go a long way: Wales have escaped the group stage in 1958, 2016 and Euro 2020.
