Good football comes with cars

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With the finals of the worldchampionship in Brasil getting near there is no way to go around football- soccer if you like - in these columns. Jan-Bart Broertjes dug up some classics for you. Both stars & cars.

Here’s Pele showing off his new Aero Willys 2600 in 1963. By that time he had two World Titles in his pocket and was fast becoming a super star. With the World Cup in full swing, talk invariably switches to the players’ expensive wheels (and their sometimes questionable driving skills). We thought it would be a nice idea to check what flash cars the top players drove in the past. The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay, but in those days soccer players weren’t very well paid. Top scorer Guillermo Stabile from Argentina probably didn’t even own a car. In fact in Europe there was a maximum wage for soccer players, which was only abolished in the sixties, so there were no flash wheels yet. In South America they were way ahead and the top players were becoming ever more popular. We found this picture of Ademir, top scorer in the 1950 tournament (which like this year’s was held in Brazil), with a Chevy Bel Air and a Cadillac (not to mention a nice lady). By the middle sixties Pele was so popular that he had to have a brick wall built around his garden to keep the fans and photographers out. When he scored his 1000th goal, he was given a Mercedes, the first of many. In the sixties things got moving in Europe as well and Eusebio was one of the biggest stars. He was top scorer in the 1966 World Cup in England and in those days was seen driving a Ford Mustang. Later he took a liking to Saabs, owning a yellow and later a black Sonnett. By now car companies realized that soccer players were great advocates, and in 1970 Ford of Britain pulled out all the stops in, loaning every player of the England World Cup squad a Ford Cortina for a year! Classic cars are not much in evidence among the soccer players of today, most of them going for the newest and latest, so as a parting shot, here is a Brazilian World Cup fan cruising in a nice Puma GTC.

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