NEIL WARNOCK: 'When I heard he was at Hillsborough I had to be there': The managerial veteran opens up on the day he saw Pele come to Sheffield
- Neil Warnock has revealed what it was like watching Pele's Santos in Sheffield
- Footballing legend Pele passed away at the age of 82 on Thursday evening
- Managerial veteran Warnock has opened up on watching him at Hillsborough
- READ: Pele dies, leaving the beautiful game - a phrase he coined - in mourning
I was at an impressionable age and I'd watched him at the 1958 World Cup when I was 10 years old. We had a television that we used to share on the road between all the lads, we didn't have them in every household.
Even at 17, he caught everybody's eye. I was 10, my brother was about Pele's age, it was so impressionable.
After that Santos took him everywhere to make some money and Santos took him to Sheffield Wednesday in 1962. I just thought, 'I've got to go', even though I'm a Sheffield United fan.
![Neil Warnock has opened up on his experience of watching Pele (centre) at Hillsborough](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/31/00/66062961-11587151-image-a-73_1672446239737.jpg)
Neil Warnock has opened up on his experience of watching Pele (centre) at Hillsborough
![The former Santos star also detailed his reservations around returning to the Brazil squad for the 1970 tournament](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/30/23/65829193-11586945-Brazil_legend_Pele_widely_considered_as_one_of_the_greatest_play-a-40_1672443529522.jpg)
Pele - considered one of the greatest players of all time - passed away at 82 on Thursday night
My sister was a Wednesdayite so we went on the Kop at Hillsborough. It was an unbelievable atmosphere with the floodlight with the Santos shirts.
He did something that day I've never seen before. They got a penalty and he ran up and stopped. The goalie dived and he just passed it to the other side of him. I'd never seen anything like it!
Later on in the game, Wednesday got a penalty and Colin Dobson - a ginger-haired winger - took it. He tried to copy Pele's penalty… and the goalie just picked it up and started laughing!
The atmosphere was great, Wednesday and United fans all together in the Kop and it was just exhilarating. He was 17 and never even looked nervous.
Most of my school went, everybody I knew went to the game with somebody. There were probably 60,000 in there. To say you were there watching Pele, it was amazing, it's stuck with me all my life.
![The Brazilian reflected on lifting the World Cup at just 17 when Brazil defeated Sweden in 1958](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/31/00/66062949-11587151-image-a-74_1672446284425.jpg)
Managerial veteran Warnock had, at 10 years old, watched striker Pele, 17, win the World Cup
He did come back to Bramall Lane but I don't remember meeting him or having a picture with him.
What he did was he brought enjoyment. As a young lad and when I played and managed, I just wanted people to get on the ball and excite us.
No one came to watch Santos, everybody there came to watch Pele. I'm there in the Kop with Wednesdayites, we were all pals and everything!
Pele would rank as my No 1 of all time. The pitches, balls and everything have changed to help the likes of Lionel Messi. But if you saw some of the pitches Pele played on, he represented us lads going in the park for a kick-around.
I've enjoyed watching Messi and George Best and people like that but I don't think anyone replaces Pele as No 1.
Neil Warnock's podcast, Die For Three Points, with David Prutton, is available on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
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