This afternoon was already going to be emotional enough – with Fulham preparing to pay tribute to George Cohen at Craven Cottage in their first home fixture since the 1966 World Cup winner’s sad passing – without the news filtering through from Brazil on Thursday night that Pele had also died. Fulham’s historic home was the only London ground that the greatest footballer to ever play the game graced when he scored the perfect penalty for Santos in 1973 before Fulham fought back through Alan Pinkney’s header and stole a surprise win through Steve Earle.

In contrast to his feelings about being pressurised into playing exhibition matches all around the world for his club side following the 1970 World Cup, Pele spoke positively about his only game in London. He remembered how warmly Cohen greeted him in the Cottage as he arrived with his team-mates and just how loud a packed Cottage cheered when he found the top corner from twelve yards. How do I know this? Because, as a twelve year old who fancied himself as a sports journalist, I was plucked from the relative obscurity of putting together a Saturday night sports paper on the streets of west London to front a press event raising money for Children in Need with the Brazilian legend and the formula one supremo, Eddie Jordan.

My job was fairly simple. I was supposed to introduce the illustrious guests to the invited guests at Saatchi and Saatchi’s headquarters in Golden Square and ask them questions about their careers – allowing Pele to reminiscence about the days when he scored more goals than anyone else in the history of the game and Eddie Jordan to discuss his hopes for the new Formula One season and unveil his new car. I didn’t really think that was going to be too difficult, but Saatchi and Saatchi still opted for an experienced compere and insisted on a full rehearsal with all the participants in an ante room an hour before.

Both Pele and I were irritated by this charade. So, he decided to interrupt and ask a question of his own – which football team did I support? I told him I was a Fulham fan and that they were making progress towards the top flight. The great man beamed a big smile and waved his hands in the air to indicate that the rehearsal was over:

“Fulham? Fantastic. I played at Craven Cottage in 1973 with Santos. It was the only time I played in London – one of the only regrets of my career was not to have played at the great cathedral of football in England, Wembley. I was nervous because I didn’t play well in the 1966 World Cup. I shouldn’t have been. As soon as I arrived with my wife, there was George Cohen who greeted me with a big hug like I was his brother. These friendly matches were the way Santos raised money and I played a lot of times, but this one was special. I remember scoring a penalty and the roar was like we were playing in Brazil! I liked the ground a go. It was very different and had a special character”.

Because I wasn’t expecting this rhetorical flourish, no cameras were rolling and we had to get Pele to repeat it afterwards, which he did willingly, adding plenty of further details, in both his very impressive English and Portuguese to ensure I got a full quote for next week’s Sportscene. The event went brilliantly, because I now knew Pele was a Fulham follower as well as my new best mate, and the jovial Eddie Jordan bounced off him brilliantly. Rather than freezing in front of the cameras, I had to referee their repartee to ensure we kept vaguely on schedule.

I was supposed to have five minutes with Pele afterwards. It was more like five hours. I was shepherded through the madness by the brilliant Jonathan Wills, then of London Tonight. Pele insisted that I sat in on all the interviews and before he left swapped a copy of Sportscene for a replica of his 1970 World Cup shirt, signed ‘To Daniel, from your friend, Pele’. It seemed most unfair, but it was fortunate that that issue had an article on Rivaldo’s fine form at Barcelona. He told me he would keep in touch and I thought nothing of it, until two weeks later an email arrived from his office asking for a copy of the newspaper in which Pele featured. He sent me a Christmas message every year in English, always finishing with ‘Come on your Whites!’. I was slightly surprised when last year’s one was entirely in Portuguese, which briefly had me stumped. He had an added a sentence asking me to ‘congratulate Marco Silva on a fantastic first six months for my favourite English football club’.

As I said on Cottage Talk last night, it is now 25 years since a twelve year old boy had the best day of his life and I still can’t actually believe it happened. Others who were present will be able to tell the story of when Santos played at the Cottage – and lost, but I can confirm that Pele was not only the greatest footballer to play the game, he was a perfect gentleman. Thank you, Pele.