New York: Doubleday, 1977
First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed by Pelé on the half-title page: “To / Ike Kuhns / thanks to support my career / Edson Pelé.” A fine copy in a very good dust jacket, mildly edge worn and with a little closed tear at the bottom edge of the front panel. With the recipient’s signed personal bookplate to the first free endpaper, and a little authentication sticker at the verso of the half-title page. An extraordinary association copy, linking football’s “Player of the Century” with one of the sport’s first media pioneers in the United States. Ivan “Ike” Kuhns was the Colin Jose Media Award recipient and a National Soccer Hall of Fame journalist whose work at the Star-Ledger extensively covered Pelé’s legendary run at the New York Cosmos from 1975 to 1977. This inscription reflects Pelé’s gratitude to the writer who helped legitimize his US campaign and bring the sport into the American mainstream.