Late Night Last Century: Pelé Teaches Johnny Carson Soccer Tricks

Late Night Last Century is a new weekly column highlighting some of the funniest and most unforgettable comedy from late night, talk shows, and variety shows of the 20th century that’s currently streaming on YouTube. This week we look at a clip of Pelé teaching Johnny Carson his soccer tricks.

On June 11, 1975, the 34-year-old Pelé, at the end of his professional career, upended the football world once again. He left his native Brazil and signed with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. The three-time World Cup winner was so revered that police helicopters circled overhead as hundreds of reporters and fans waited for him to finalize a $4.75 million contract at the city’s storied 21 Club. 

Yet there was a small problem. The Brazilian government had declared Pelé an “unexportable national treasure,” prompting involvement from the U.S. State Department and some contractual maneuvering. Pelé, who had two gold hits in Brazil as a guitarist, would be employed as a “recording artist” at Atlantic Records, which shared a parent company with the team. From then on, he was a man on a mission: to bring soccer to the American people. “Now you can say to the world,” Pele said after signing the contract, “soccer has finally arrived in the United States.”

Pelé got a head start two years earlier, when on May 9, 1973, he appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Though Pelé could speak little English, and Carson no Portuguese, the two had a conversation about Pelé’s career and America’s lack of enthusiasm for soccer. Despite the language barrier, the off-the-charts charisma makes the interview a great watch. I believe this is what they call “having it.”