Former soccer star and legend Pele served Friday as the guide inside the historic Maracana soccer stadium to attract the votes of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commission for the 2016 Olympic Games in the candidate city of Rio de Janeiro.
Juggling, passing balls and even signing memorabilia, the ambassador to Rio's Olympic candidacy showed the inspectors around the stadium's facilities.
Pele sat down and had an in-depth conversion with the president of the commission and ex-athlete of the Moroccan team of Nawal El Moutawekel.
Pele was quoted as referring to the IOC representatives as "children" in relation to their enjoyment and fun had at Maracana.
The commission will head next to Madrid, Spain, where they will evaluate the country's capacity to hold the 2016 Games.
According to Pele, "the commission was quite impressed. They told me that they had no idea that Rio de Janeiro was so wonderful. They said that they want to come back to visit apart from word."
The commission has already visited the candidate cities of Chicago and Tokyo. The announcement of the host city will be made on October 2 of this year.
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2009)