Dirty TacklePele broke Sylvester Stallone’s finger with a penalty kick while filming Victory
The BBC had Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro predict the winners of a few Premier League matches as to two actors make the promotional rounds for their film Grudge Match. Though De Niro freely admitted he's "not into the sport," Stallone does have a bit of experience with football dating back to his role as a POW goalkeeper in the 1981 film (Escape to) Victory.
The film co-starred professional footballers like Pele, Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles, but as Stallone explained, Pele proved to be the most memorable. And painful.
From the BBC:
"That was one of the low points of my life," Stallone laughed. "What a butt-kicking I got! I still have a broken finger from trying to block a penalty by Pele.
"He put on a pair of World War II shoes which were steel-tipped, and the ball was like a cannonball - it was twice as thick and heavy as footballs are today. He was telling me he was going to take a shot and I thought 'it's soccer, what's the big deal? It's easy'.
"He came to take one penalty shot and he told me exactly where he was going to put it, so I stood there but the ball still flew past me before I could move.
"He put it literally right where he had said. He did it again, and it ripped through the back of the net and broke a window in the barracks where we were filming. I went 'are you kidding me?' I found a new kind of respect."
Stallone, who is friends with Everton shareholder Robert Earl, says they will beat Norwich 17-0 this weekend.
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