In 1972, teenager and future Socceroo Rene Colusso was picked by Pele to travel to Santos and train at his world-famous club.
At the age of 15, Rene Colusso was already a big kid and a talented young footballer on the verge of playing first grade for the Marconi Stallions.“I started crying straight away. I was still a kid so I started to cry, yeah,” Colusso recalls. “I was always aiming to win the prize, I knew my quality and everything. But yes, when it happened .... it was a big moment.”, including an Australian fan base that had, almost entirely, never seen the Brazilian deity play.
The travellers stayed in team accommodation, trained, met an array of stars and watched a handful of games, but only met up with Pele again once more. Colusso was the first Australian to play professionally in Italy and was on the cusp of a star career in Italy the next year when his form while on loan to Pisa saw him receive offers from giants Juventus and Fiorentina. But the following week Colusso blew his knee and the Serie A opportunities were gone by the time he recovered and returned to playing.
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