World’s Greatest Ever Player is World’s Worst Ever Businessman

Cheer up, Pele. Maybe this venture will pan out

Yet another Pele business venture has failed. It’s incomprehensible to think that the Brazilian, so universally lauded for his soccer skill, has endured such woeful luck in the business world. Or maybe it’s not, if you subscribe to that theory that good athletes aren’t very smart.

After the disappearance of his construction company and scandal-ridden sports marketing firm, Pele was in the mix with a Swiss boots manufacturer, Nomis, who were all set to make high-performance cleats with Pele’s blessing (and a cut of the royalties, naturally)… until they too went belly-up. Imagine that.

And now, not being one to think things through more thoroughly, Pele has signed on with a German company named Pele Sports (how convenient! His name is Pele!) who will make boots and launch them in time for next summer’s World Cup.

Quoth Pele Sports’ managing director Gunther Siebrecht: “The people that in our eyes invented the technology are now on board with Pelé Sports,” presumably talking about the Dassler brothers or Phil Knight, or maybe some guy held over from defunct Pele business partner Nomis.

Either way, it all sounds highly promising dubious and I’m sure the bottom will fall out well ahead of next June.

I’m still bemused that Pele can’t catch on with Nike or Adidas or any soccer-entwined brand that people have actually heard of. Does he ask for too much money, or is he just simply not hip enough?