With the recent death of Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, the Johnny Carson YouTube channel has released this clip of his appearance on The Tonight Show in May 1973. Carson introduces Pelé, who had already made a big name for himself, saying that he had just been at the White House meeting President Richard Nixon the day before.
Johnny then shared a few interesting facts about the famous footballer like that he was the highest paid athlete in history, that more than 800 million people watched his matches (which is more than the number of people who watched the moon landing), and when he visited the West African state of Biafra, the war stopped for two days so that people could come and meet him. He also said that that Brazil declared him a "national asset" so he could not be sold an Italian soccer club that had offered him three million dollars to join them.
Despite the language barrier (neither Pelé nor Carson spoke each other's language), the two managed to push through a series of pre-planned questions (it's a shame they didn't hire a translator!). The fun really began after the commercial break when Pelé tried teaching Carson some basic soccer moves. (via Nag on the Lake)
