Pele gave Ronaldo Ballon d’Or award but Messi is ‘the best in the world’

The legendary footballer makes a flying visit to Dubai as the brand ambassador for Emirates Airline.

Among the few functions Pele attended while in Dubai, he received old pictures of the Al Nasr football club from former players. Afsal Sham / Al Ittihad

DUBAI // Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has made no secret of the fact he is in the market for a new striker this transfer window, yet even the Premier League leaders’ most ambitious fans must have performed a double-take as they perused the internet yesterday afternoon.

“Pele jets into the Emirates,” read one website headline; “Pele signs on at the Emirates,” read another.

The latter is slightly misleading as the greatest striker to ever play the beautiful game has not agreed to play at the North London club’s ground. Instead, the Brazilian has signed on with Emirates Airline as a global ambassador.

The Dubai-based carrier has long been involved in sports sponsorship deals, most famously that of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Yet yesterday’s announcement that the 73 year old will represent the airline around the world in the build-up to this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, is only the second instance of a tie-up with an individual athlete.

The three-time World Cup winner did jet into the Emirates as he was chauffeured around Dubai making appearances, garnering publicity and undertaking photoshoots. Few people can put Burj Khalifa in the shade, yet Pele gave it a go.

Before that though, he posed with Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, the divisional senior vice president of commercial operations at Emirates, who introduced him as “Brazil’s king of football and a global icon: recognised, respected and idolised by people around the world – including me”.

Pele, addressing the media in English, spoke briefly of his recent honorary Ballon d’Or award, as well as his thoughts on the Messi-Ronaldo debate and his expectations of this summer’s showpiece.

None of it proved particularly explosive, yet it is Pele and so, by default, it is newsworthy.

“I am an emotional guy,” was his explanation as to why he cried while receiving his honorary award earlier this week. “In my time, we didn’t have the Golden Ball and I never played in Europe, so it was the only trophy missing in my home.”

At the same ceremony, Pele had presented a similarly tearful Cristiano Ronaldo with the 2013 Ballon d’Or award, however, he yesterday hailed Lionel Messi as the best in the world.

“Now it is Messi, no doubt,” he said. “He has been the one playing at the top for the past few years. Now we have Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a different style, is a great goalscorer and an excellent player, but Messi is the player who has been more consistent over the past few years.”

Pele helped Brazil win the ultimate prize in international football in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and has said in the past he expects his country to reach the final in July.

The main threat to his country winning a sixth title, he said, will come from Europe. “Brazil was always a strong team in attack,” he said.

“This year though is the first time the team is well prepared in midfield and back. My opinion, six months before the World Cup final, is that the best teams are Spain and Germany.

“They are the two most organised teams, but you must also respect the traditional teams like Italy, England, Portugal and Argentina.”

Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE