Edson Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pelé is regarded as one of the best football (soccer in America) players of all time, yet what's more famous than the player himself is Pelé's "famous" prediction before each major football event.
Pelé had been looking for ways to continue his passion for football after his retirement, eventually he decided to give up his legs for his mouth, that is to make prediction for teams that he thinks would have great accomplishments during each football tournament. However it IS his mouth that has brough so much bad luck to this sport in the upcoming years. Even though Pelé started making predictions in the 1980's people were still not aware of his curse until 1990.
Before the World Cup started in that year Pelé said he favored the country of Yugoslavia very much, as a matter of fact, he believed their team would pull the most number of upsets all the way to the final four. However during their opening match, Yugoslavia lost to West Germany 1-4, and their lackluster performances in the later games did not help them go very far either, eventually they lost to Argentina during penalty kick in the quarter-finals. Two years later Pelé insisted that he still favored Yugoslavia on the Euro (European Soccer Championship) '92, what's funny is that their team was later banned from playing football in that year due to political issues. Pelé also favored his own nation Brazil during the 1990 World Cup, unfortunately Brazil was knocked out in the Round of 16.
In the World Cup 1994, Pelé picked Columbia. He even made annoucement that Columbia was the cup contender. Reality certainly didn't favor his prediction. Columbia was eliminated in the group stage, and defender Escobar was gunned down shortly after the team returned home.
Pelé tried to stay low key before the Euro '96, he predicted Italy as the cup winner and Turkey as the "underdog". You probably guessed right this time. Both teams were eliminated in the group stage. When the World Cup started in 1998, Pelé's "reputation" for making bad predictions had reached to most football fans' ears, so were the actual players. Unfortunately Spain became the scapegoat this time. Their group draw had previously put themselves together with three relatively weaker teams but nonetheless the Spaniards packed their bags and went home after the first round. At the same time Brazil was considered the team that could win this event back-to-back after their spectacular performance in 1994. Pelé learned his lesson this time, or not. Brazilian football fans begged him for mercy as Brazil advanced each playoff round. Just days before the final match Pelé opened his mouth again. Brazil went down 0-3 to France.
In 2002, Pelé finally learned the lesson and he was praised by the Brazilian fans for a reason that you might not expect, Pelé used his prediction on teams that posed great threats to Brazil. He first "cursed" the defending champ France and Argentina (these two teams were eliminated in the first round), then later he predicted England would the cup winner after their 3-0 victory over Denmark in the round of 16. England faced Brazil in the next round and was defeated.
In Euro 2004, Pelé favored the England team and young star Wayne Rooney before their match against Portugal. Unluckily, Rooney had to leave in the middle of the game due to injury and England lost in the penalty kick. When Portugal finally made to the final match, so came Pelé's new prediction. No surprise this time, the Portuguese did not laugh all the way to the end.
In 2006 World Cup, Pelé set his eyes on England again. Let's see how far they will go this time.
..