A Moscow Autograph Gallery-commissioned artwork intended to celebrate the 80th birthday of football legend Pele sparked intrigue on Wednesday when it appeared to show the 3-time World Cup winner with a trophy that he never actually won.
The Stargift Gallery in the Russian capital brought in artist Ruslan Kuashev, who created a work on a signed Pele shirt with the figure 'eighty' made up from one thousand, two hundred and eighty-nine stars, symbolising every goal that Pele is said to have scored over his glittering career.
It also depicted Pele holding three World Cup trophies - the modern incarnation, not the Jules Rimet trophy that he won in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
However, in fact Kuashev used as his inspiration a real image of Pele holding three replicas of the FIFA World Cup trophy in recognition of his status as the only player to have won the World Cup three times.
