Sylvester Stallone took to his social media to say goodbye to a global star who died this Thursday, September 29. "He was a good man," wrote the renowned actor on his Instagram account, where he shared a picture of the time when he was a colleague of this superstar.
Throughout his extensive and acclaimed career, Sylvester Stallone shared the cast with some of the biggest figures in world cinema. The 76-year-old actor began to experience success and fame when he starred in "Rocky" in 1976, a story that he wrote himself. Already recognized worldwide, in 1981 he had the luxury of acting with Michael Caine in "Escape to Victory", a war drama based on true events and directed by John Huston.
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But Caine's figure was not the only one that stood out in a film that cost 10 million dollars -a very high budget for the time- but there were also several soccer stars, such as Osvaldo Ardiles, Bobby Moore, and Pelé, among others. Precisely the Brazilian star was remembered by Sylvester Stallone in the last hours when his sad death at the age of 82 was known.
Along with a photo from the time they filmed "Escape to Victory", Stallone bid farewell to Pelé: "PELÉ THE GREAT! Rest in peace! He was a good man". In this way, the movie star remembered one of the greatest figures in the history of world football on a day that brought mourning to all of Brazil and saddened those who love the most popular sport on the planet.
The real story behind Escape to Victory
On August 9, 1942, a series of matches began between FC Star players and German soldiers that would end in a massacre due to suspicions that the players belonged to the Soviet police. After several matches in which the Ukrainian prisoners always won, the Nazi decision was to ban soccer as they made them look worse every time. In this sense, the film tells that there was a key match called "the death match" and that after losing there was a massacre since, supposedly, the Germans avenged the defeat with torture and murder.
However, the historical reality -as revealed by its survivors- showed that the situation was not like that. Vladen Putistin, son of one of the players in those matches, revealed that after the matches they would "go home" and that there were actually "a series of matches that were suspended to avoid discrediting the forces occupying Kiev".
Arrests came after the officers playing with the Ukrainian footballers realized that many players were actually part of the NKVD, the Soviet police. This situation led to them being marked, tortured, and sent to different concentration camps.