Pele arrived back in Brazil on Tuesday after a six-day hospital stay in Paris © AFP / NELSON ALMEIDA
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Apr 10 – Diego Maradona wished his fellow living legend Pele a speedy recovery Wednesday, posting a picture on Instagram of the two football greats in 1979.
“This picture is 40 years old today. It was taken in Rio de Janeiro, when we met each other in person. How young we were…. I wish you a very speedy recovery, King @Pele,” said the Argentine great, currently the coach of Mexican second-division club Dorados.
The picture shows an 18-year-old Maradona, his face aglow, watching Pele, then 38, play the guitar.
The two players are often cited as rivals for the title of greatest footballer of all time, fueling the larger and never-ending rivalry between Brazil and Argentina.
Pele, now 78, returned to his native Brazil Tuesday after being hospitalized six days in Paris for a severe urinary infection. Exiting the airport in a wheelchair, he was taken to a hospital in Sao Paulo, where he was placed under observation.
Pele, the only footballer to win three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970), has suffered from increasingly fragile health in recent years.
In 2014, he was hospitalized in intensive care for another urinary tract infection, for which he had to undergo dialysis.
