Former Brighton and Hove Albion and Spurs player Mel Hopkins has told how his heart was broken by a soccer legend.

Mel played for Wales against Brazil in the 1958 World Cup quarter-finals in Sweden.

Also on the pitch that day was a 17-year-old youngster making his international debut. It was Pele.

Mel, 67, of Beach Green, Shoreham Beach, said: "We had heard about a Brazilian boy who was supposed to be quite good, although we had not seen him play.

"The game was very close but Wales had the upper hand. Then this lad Pele scrambled in the goal which put us out of the World Cup and broke our hearts.

"It wasn't even a very good goal - it was a bit messy. He went on to become the best player the world has ever seen. Better even than Maradona."

Mel was born and raised in Ystrad in the Rhondda Valley, Wales. He went to the local grammar school, where he was expected to play the Welsh national game of rugby.

But his first love was soccer and he spent his spare time kicking a football around the streets and his local park.

He joined the local boys' club, where a talent scout from Tottenham Hotspur saw the spark of a special talent in the tall, thin 15-year-old.

Mel was asked to go to Tottenham's training ground at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire for a trial with 40 other boys and was offered a £3-a-week apprenticeship to play for the club.

By the age of 17 he was a regular, earning £20 a week.

He said: "I was at Tottenham for 14 years and played with and against some of the greatest names - Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton and George Best are just a few of them."

He was out of the game for two years after being injured playing for Wales against Scotland in 1959.

It was former Liverpool star Ian St John - who later teamed up with Jimmy Greaves for The Saint And Greavsie show on television - who forced Mel to put his career on hold.

He said: "I went up with him to head the ball and he headed me full in the face instead. It smashed my nose and upper jaw."

Mel left Tottenham after 14 years and signed for Fourth Division Brighton and Hove Albion for £8,000 in 1964. He played for the club for four seasons at the Goldstone Ground.

Mel had a word of advice for Albion striker Bobby Zamora: "He should stay at Brighton for a little longer and go up with them if they win promotion to Division One."

The game in which Mel played against Pele, and the story behind it, feature in a new book, When Pele Broke Our Hearts. It is published by Ashley Drake, priced £12.95.