The day I met a teenage Pelé, ‘the greatest advertisement Brazil ever had’

A retired businessman recalls the time when, in 1958, the then-17-year-old World Cup footballer practised at his school

• Pele, Brazil World Cup winner and football legend, dies aged 82
• Pele tops our list of the top 100 all-time World Cup footballers
• Observer Archive from 1970: There is only one Pele'

Renato Carvalho was 11 years old when he met Pele for the first and only time.

It was 1958 and he was a schoolboy in a small city called Pocos de Caldas. To the amazement of him and his friends, the Brazilian team were preparing for the World Cup on his school pitch.