This is a mini-mystery to me! Botafogo was one of the greatest clubs in South America in the early-1960s with a fantastic line-up, how could they get slaughtered 0-11 by Santos? Something very extraordinary must have happened in this match, does anybody know the story? Pelé scored eight goals, btw.
As Rafael pointed out, there is a lesser-known small team which shares Botafogo's name, but not its fame.
Ahh, and I thought "Ribeirão Preto" was some special competition the two teams met in! What does Botafogo mean?
Literally it means "puts on fire" Actually the football side was named after a suburb in Rio de Janeiro There are other Botafogo's in Brasil (most likely inspired by the original one) such as the one from Ribeirão Preto in São Paulo State and the one from João Pessoa in Paraíba State
There are many interesting quotidian stories that became part of the myth of Pelé and this is certainly one of them. Santos won the Paulista Championship in 1959. The young Pelé was a dazzling star with a World Cup to back him up, but he was not yet… Pelé. Oswaldo Brandão, then coach of Palmeiras, said to the press at the end of the season: “we are doomed to face this team for the next four years.” He was wrong. It took more than four years. Five years later, in 1964, the same Oswaldo Brandão was the coach of Botafogo from Ribeirão Preto, the club that, in the 70's, would give Sócrates to Brazil. Playing against Santos was never easy, but Oswaldo Brandão was an experienced coach and his team had the home advantage that night. But Pelé apparently had other ideas. He scored 8 of the 11 goals and could have done more, but according to the old sports journalists, Machado, Botafogo’s goalkeeper, had a wonderful night and made several miraculous saves. As expected, Brandão was fired. Even so he was an old cat and got a new job quickly. Lucky man, one could say, looking at him as the new coach of Corinthians! Two weeks later Corinthians faced Santos and Oswaldo Brandão faced the facts. Again, one must add. The score? 7x4. Pelé scored four times. In the short period of 15 days Mr. Brandão saw Santos scoring 18 times against his teams. Pelé played furiously in both games and scored 12 goals. As anyone can conclude, Oswaldo Brandão had a few issues with Pelé. Anyone can check it. What is not written is that Pelé seemingly had a few issues with him too. At least it was what I heard from an old journalist who told me that in that night in Ribeirão Preto, as an attempt to affect Pelé’s performance, someone supposedly whispered him that his girlfriend was having a great time while he was there. I don’t know if it’s really true, but I cannot avoid to think: what a way to defend a girlfriend’s honor!