Football legend Pele, center, with NCB's Abdulkareem Abu Al-Nasr, right, and MasterCard's Denzil Lawson at the Jeddah Hilton on Tuesday night. (AN photo by Adnan Mahdali)

JEDDAH, 25 January 2006 — World football legend Pele last night expressed hope that the Saudi national team would fare better in the World Cup in Germany this year than in the previous events.

“It’s my expectation that Brazil will meet Saudi Arabia in the World Cup final,” Pele told a press conference on the sidelines of the launch of the National Commercial Bank’s (NCB) new campaign in cooperation with MasterCard International (MCI).

The campaign offers the users of the NCB-MasterCard, especially designed for the World Cup a chance to win seats for the World Cup. The promotion is valid for two months from February. “This is a special campaign to promote the FIFA World Cup,” Al-Nasr said. “We wish well for our national team and hope to celebrate their success,” he added. “This is the largest promotion of its kind in the Middle East aimed to promote the World Cup, as football is the most popular sport in the world and here,” said Denzil Lawson, senior vice president and general manager of MasterCard International for Middle East & Africa.

Brazil is currently the best national team internationally. “In fact, Brazil has maintained its consistency due to the manner in which it plays the game and professionalism,” Pele said. Asked about the prospects of other international team, he mentioned that Germany had performed badly in the Euro Cup and Holland could not win the World Cup despite reaching the final stages.

“I came to be known as a world player after I played for several years for Brazil. I came to be known internationally after I played for years. Those were the days when satellite TV channels were non-existent. Today, a player playing just one game is noticed worldwide thanks to the electronic media,” said Pele who recently told a German newspaper that he is heartily sick of his nickname and would really rather be known by his full name, Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

The player picked up his nickname from a teammate of his father, Joao Ramos do Nascimento — or Dondinho — who played for a local club.