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Kansas City is preparing to host Lionel Messi, widely considered one of the best soccer players in the world. But decades before Messi's arrival, another soccer king left his mark on the city: Pelé.
On July 4, 1968, fans packed the old Municipal Stadium to watch Pelé and his team, Santos, beat the Kansas City Spurs.
The next day, the Kansas City Star wrote: "If the Brazilians are not the best in the world, 19,296 fans would have been absolutely awed by the team that is."
George Toma, a 97-year-old retired groundskeeper who worked in the industry for 84 years, was on the sidelines during that 1968 game.
"He was a legend," Toma said. "Pelé said that was the second-best field he ever played on," Toma said.
Toma is proud of the price tag for that field, noting it was grown from Bermuda seed rather than sod.
"Today they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the fields, millions of dollars. And for that field that he says was the second best, we only spent $96 on that field," Toma said.
Beyond the field, Toma remembered Pelé's character.
"He was an outstanding gentleman, he didn't forget the little guy he talked to," Toma said.
Eli Durante, a former midfielder originally from São Paulo, Brazil, played against Pelé while defending the Rochester Lancers and Saint Louis Stars.
"Everybody knew worldwide who Pelé was," Durante said.
Durante faced Pelé in St. Louis, where his team lost 2 to 1. He said the anticipation of playing against Santos and Pelé would make players nervous and excited weeks in advance.
"It's an amazing feeling, you know, just to think about it. That he's going to be in town and you're going to be able to play with him," Durante said.
Durante said he never beat Pelé, but managed to tie one game. He believes Pelé remains unmatched in the sport.
"He was a complete player. I mean, there's nobody like, I hate to say that to the Messi and Ronaldos of the world and all that, but there was nobody like him," Durante said.
Alan Mayer, a goalkeeper coach for the Kansas City Comets, played against Pelé while in goal for the San Diego Jaws and Las Vegas Quicksilvers.
"I was very fortunate enough to have played against him," Mayer said.
Mayer recalled the pressure of facing the soccer legend one-on-one.
"And this is the time when you think, oh, Pelé's coming at you now. You better, just don't, just don't look bad. He can score," Mayer said.
Mayer said playing against and defeating Pelé was a major milestone that catapulted his career, especially after Pelé praised the young American keeper in the press.
"It was wonderful, just the experience of playing against him, the experience of being on the same field as he is. And then the experience of winning was just wonderful and really maybe one of my highlights of my career," Mayer said.
Like Toma, Mayer also praised Pelé's character off the field.
"He was right up at the top as a human being. So not only could he play, he was a good guy," Mayer said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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