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Pele’s memorable Starehe Boys Centre visit
Brazil’s legendary football player Pele interacts with students at Nairobi’s Starehe Boys Centre during his visit to Kenya in February 1976. The small boy at the bottom of the picture is John Kamau, currently an insurance expert and volunteer rally official.
What you need to know:
- Was Kamau and his school mates overawed by the presence of one of the world’s biggest celebrities then?
- “Obviously, but not that much. We were used to because every celebrity who visited Kenya always came calling at Starehe. Pele was an exception though.
Fallen Brazilian football legend Pele’s name is immortalised in Kenya with “Pele House” at Nairobi’s Starehe Boys Centre which he visited 46 years ago.
During the visit, Pele gifted the school a cash donation of $5,000.
(The value of $5,000 from 1976 to 2022 is equivalent, in purchasing power, to about $26,187.17 (Sh3,221,001) today, according to in2023dollar.com)
Pele is a constant reminder to students in some of the pictures of celebrities or notable personalities who visited Starehe Boys Centre Nairobi which adorn the reception area of school.
Starehe was founded in 1959 as a rescue centre to offer free education to needy and very poor boys by three young visionaries.
In one of the pictures, the all-time greatest football player Pele is surrounded by young, admiring boys who remind the youth of today of a glorious past when Starehe was the first port of call for visiting sports and arts celebrities.
Many alumni of the 1976 classes from Form One to Six at Starehe Boys Centre recall with nostalgia those good old days.
For John Kamau, an insurance technology expert and motorsport volunteer administrator, the death of Pele is a blow to many Starehians, many who aspired for greater heights to scale in life like the Brazilian who at his youth was partly a shoe shine to supplement his family’s income.
Kamau recalls vividly how Pele spent one whole afternoon at Starehe, situated along General Wariunge Way between Karoikor Market and Eastleigh, teaching them how to play football through drills and little communication because he didn’t understand the English language well then.
John Kamau in a recent photo
“How time flies and we forget easily but not with Pele,” recalled Kamau yesterday.
“I am the smallest in one of the pictures amongst a group of students surrounding Pele as a guy called Radido held a magazine photograph for Pele to autograph,” he explains one of the photographs.
Lucky autograph
The photo in reference was the shot that defined Pele as a football wizard in the 1965 Brazil 5-0 drubbing of Belgium in an international friendly.
He is seen levitating upside down, his legs spread out 90 degrees with the ball rocketing from the left.
“Every soccer lover cherished that photo and Radido was lucky to have it autographed by the legend himself as we watched almost touching him,” says Kamau.
Bicycle kicks are rare and celebrated, always remembered if any finds the net like the sensational drive by Richarlison in Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Serbia in Qatar 2022 World Cup recently.
In his 2007 autobiography, My Life and the Beautiful Game, Pelé summed up the bicycle kick perfectly: “While actually not too valuable for making goals, it’s still a beautiful thing to see properly executed,” he wrote.
“Actually, of all my goals, I think only four or five were obtained with the bicycle kick, but every Brazilian football player longs for the opportunity to perform this kick, if only for the pleasure of the fans.”
Was Kamau and his school mates overawed by the presence of one of the world’s biggest celebrities then?
“Obviously, but not that much. We were used to because every celebrity who visited Kenya always came calling at Starehe. Pele was an exception though.
