Brazilian legend Pele has denied alleging that Manchester City star Robinho had taken drugs.
Pele allegedly made the claim that both Robinho and his close friend Ronaldo had both had a problem with recreational drugs when speaking at a private function in Sao Paulo.
The comments have caused a stir in Brazil, where Ronaldo commands huge respect and Pele’s is revered. However, Pele insists he said no such thing.
”Robinho is our son and left Santos with our supervision,” he told TV Globo. ”What happened was a misunderstanding because I never said anything like that, they gave him wrong information .
”I know what the people who need to sell newspapers are like. When there’s a story like this you need to ask for the recording to hear what was really said.”
Pele’s advisor elaborated about the exact nature of the misunderstanding.
”There’s nothing to this, Pele never said that Robinho had problems with drugs,” he told Terra. ”His answer was distorted.
”Pele was asked about problems in football, and said that the problems are few compared to other sports . He said that in football only Maradona, Ronaldo and Robinho had really had problems, but he never talked about drugs at any moment.”
Robinho said at Brazil’s training camp: “I think it was a misunderstanding, Pele made a mistake but I don’t have any bad feelings against him.
“I’ve never had any type of problems with drugs, if I had I wouldn’t be here today with Brazil.”
Earlier Robinho had demanded that Pele retract the remarks, adding in a statement on his website that he would take legal action if the brazilian legend did not back down.
“A formal retraction from Pele will be requested, if what he said was not misinterpreted by the media that published it,” the statement said. “And if Pele does not come forward, he will have to deal with his very unfortunate comment in court.”
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