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Pele: Ipswich Town legends pay tribute to the Brazilian icon

Alamy The Allied team in Escape to VictoryAlamy
Russell Osman, top left, and John Wark, back row, third from right, were among the Ipswich Town players who starred with Pele, Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone in Escape to Victory

Former Ipswich Town players who starred in a film with Pele have paid tribute to the Brazilian football legend.

Pele, who is credited with scoring a world record 1,281 goals in 1,363 appearances during a 21-year career, died on Thursday at the age of 82.

Russell Osman and John Wark were on set in Budapest in 1980 filming Escape to Victory, which also starred Michael Caine.

Osman said "without a shadow of doubt" Pele was the greatest ever player.

"He was a wonderful man," added the former centre back, 63.

"He was absolutely a delight to work with and we were honoured to be on the same football pitch as him and we were just having fun together."

Russell Osman Russell Osman with Escape to Victory memorabiliaRussell Osman
Osman, pictured wearing a T-shirt marking the film's 40th anniversary and in front of a photo signed by Pele, still has souvenirs from Escape to Victory

The plot of the film, which also stars Sylvester Stallone, follows Caine's character, Colby, and his desire to arrange a football match between his fellow prisoners of war and a German team.

The Allied prisoners see a perfect opportunity to escape during the match at a full stadium in Paris.

The story is partly inspired by FC Start, a wartime Kyiv side that took on and beat their Nazi occupiers.

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Osman said Pele, at the age of 39, would often join with "little kickabouts" during breaks from filming still in his army boots "juggling about with the football".

Ipswich Town were a force to be reckoned with at the time, having won the FA Cup in 1978, before going on to lift the Uefa Cup under Sir Bobby Robson in 1981.

Alamy Match action from Escape to VictoryAlamy
Kevin O'Callaghan said he was honoured to line up alongside the former England captain Bobby Moore and also Pele
Alamy Sylvester Stallone and Pele in Escape to VictoryAlamy
Stallone and Pele lined up in the same team in the film

"He's one of those people where the game in his mind would slow down, so he could take everything in and analyse everything a lot, lot quicker than the average footballer does," Osman said.

"Players of that quality just have this God-given gift."

Shutterstock Escape to Victory - Allied team in changing room at half-timeShutterstock
Osman (to the left of Sylvester Stallone) was given a key line in the film as the players decide not to escape at half time

Wark recalled how Pele drank some alcohol on one of the last nights of filming and needed carrying into a lift while fast asleep on his chair.

"He is and always will be the best player in the world," said the 65-year-old former midfielder who played for Scotland against Brazil in the 1982 Fifa World Cup.

"When he scored the overhead kick goal [for the film], it was one take, and when we used to play piggy in the middle with the ball, he used to take the mickey out of us - it was too easy for him."

The former Ipswich winger Kevin O'Callaghan, who was 18 at the time of the filming, recalled someone who just "wanted to play football all the time".

"Sometimes you say 'don't meet your heroes' but he was fantastic," said O'Callaghan, speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk.

Fellow Ipswich players Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner, Paul Cooper and the late Kevin Beattie also featured in the filming.

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