Before Messi-mania hit KC for FIFA World Cup, Kansas City welcomed the great Pelé
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Messi was swarmed on the Kansas City tarmac by fans, press, and autograph seekers.
- Observers said he was 'engulfed' by cheerleading people, press, and greeting people.
- Through a translator, he said, "It is a fine town.".
When the South American icon widely believed to be the best soccer player who ever lived disembarked from his plane in Kansas City, he promptly was swarmed on the tarmac on his way to conducting a news conference.
“He is engulfed,” as one observer described it. “Up come the cheerleading people, the press people, the greeting people, the autograph people, the airport people. And just people. Forward come the banners, the signs, the pads, pencils, cameras and microphones.”
When the man who spoke little English was asked through a translator what he thought about the place he’d not yet seen, his words were interpreted thusly: “He says ‘It is a fine town.’”
Such was the chaotic scene two airports and 58 years ago, as chronicled then by The Star, when Brazil’s Pelé and his Santos team arrived for an exhibition game against the Kansas City Spurs of the North American Soccer League.
Before an enthralled crowd of 19,296 at Municipal Stadium, where tickets cost between one and five dollars, the man then thought to be among the few most famous people on Earth had a goal and an assist in a 4-1 victory.
The improbable appearance here of “the sorcerer of soccer” and “an acrobat without a trapeze,” as The Star put it then, became part of the mosaic of soccer history here.
All of which in turn was funneled into the fruitful 2026 World Cup bid that not only includes six games at “Kansas City Stadium” (Arrowhead) but also features three of the most renowned soccer nations on the globe (including England and The Netherlands) making their base camps in the metro area.
Among those is defending World Cup champ Argentina … and the man now widely considered the best who ever lived — and among the best-known people on the planet.
Lionel Messi evokes a similar mania to what Pelé inspired but also embodies the contrast in eras.
And that goes well beyond the stark difference in pricing then compared to FIFA’s gouging now for games expected to draw sellout crowds for a soccer-contoured capacity of around 73,000-75,000.
When Team Argentina arrived Sunday on a plane embellished on the tail fin with Messi’s No. 10 and its iconic blue and white stripes, Messi wasn’t among them when a KMBC 9 news helicopter followed the team bus to the Origin Hotel — now adorned by a massive image of Messi.
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Since he already was in Miami, Messi flew separately on a charter plane and arrived at Kansas City International hours later.
While he was greeted on the tarmac as Pelé was, safe to say it was a much more controlled environment.
There, then and ever since, it seems.
Reflecting the times, Argentina and Messi largely are cordoned off from the public with dense security around the hotel during their stay in KC.
That standard was reinforced at their training session Wednesday at Compass Minerals National Performance Center, Sporting KC’s training facility. With rumors persisting that the practice would be open to the public, Kansas City, Kansas police issued an advisory to dissuade those who might merely be seeking to get a glimpse of the team.
Instead, the practice was open only to a few select guests and the media. Those guests and media were shuttled in from more than a mile away and went through multiple checkpoints to enter a perimeter safeguarded by numerous members of law enforcement — including a rooftop presence.
With the ever-present KMBC copter whirring overhead to start it off and some 50 local and U.S. media joined by another 50 media members from Argentina — with Spanish far more audible than English as several seemed to be rendering play-by-play of the practice — it made for another of recent moments that felt like the World Cup at last had arrived in Kansas City.
Certainly, it felt that way for Sporting KC president and CEO Jake Reid, who after nearly a decade toward the cause began feeling its arrival in earnest on Sunday, when KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer texted him that a news helicopter was following Messi on his ride to the hotel.
“That was a pretty real moment,” he said with a smile shortly before the training session began.
As many “grandiose” talks as he’d had with Sporting KC’s ownership about the $75 million facility that opened in 2018, he added, “I don’t think having Argentina and Messi training here for (the) World Cup was one of them. I’d like to say it was, but it’s pretty mind-blowing.”
Since Messi had suffered a hamstring injury in Inter Miami CF’s most recent match May 24 at Philadelphia, it was understood he would train lightly, if at all.
But as the session unfolded Wednesday, much of the media — particularly locally — still was intensely focused on when Messi would emerge.
At some level, it felt like waiting for favorite performers to take the stage. Especially if the performers were along the lines of The Beatles, Elvis or Sinatra.
Television cameras, traditional news photographers’ cameras and phone cameras were ready to be instantly deployed as 10 minutes became 15, and then 20-ish, of “is that him?”
When it finally was, a TV station apparently broadcasting live to Argentina urgently told the studio “Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi!”
But with Messi walking away from the media area to train individually a hundred or so yards away, the only ones who got a good look were those with the tech to zoom in. At one point, a nearby photographer said something along the lines of “Dear God, please turn around.”
Shazam, a moment later he did.
That was about as close as anyone came to connecting with Messi as he prepares to be able to play in Argentina’s World Cup opener on June 16 against Algeria — which is making its case camp in nearby Lawrence, Kansas.
No interviews were forthcoming, and, really, it’s hard to know what level of local engagement there will be with Messi — who understands English but seldom speaks it publicly.
Chances are he won’t get out much … and that we won’t even get to hear him say Kansas City is “a fine town.”
Just the same, one parallel between the arrivals of Pelé and Messi figures to hold true.
While Messi is soon to be 39 (June 24), he also still has the capacity to speak volumes to anyone by mesmerizing the way Pelé did.
If you were fortunate enough to be among the 70,000-plus to see him play for Inter Miami against Sporting KC two years ago at Arrowhead, you saw something that transcends direct contact.
You saw the rare and mesmerizing brilliance, especially on what appeared to be a no-look pass splitting two defenders to set up a goal by Diego Gomez.
Like Pelé …
“He can create something out of thin air,” then-Sporting forward Daniel Salloi said after the match.
That vibe that night, Salloi also said, was “a taste for everybody of what that World Cup is going to bring.”
With Messi and Argentina both based and playing here, Salloi couldn’t have known how right he was when he said that.
A taste Pelé helped stoke here in Kansas City, but one that has entered an entirely different dimension now.