Here is the bit from the linesman's book. He was also a player, playing at the time for a team called the Lagos Casuals, and as such invited with his club to watch a match between Nigeria and Brazil when Pele was playing. He writes of the occasion: "We had the honour of meeting up with him after the match. The game itself was a beautiful exhibition of controlled play by Pele and his colleagues. The result of the game was inevitable but irrelevant to the fact that it was a delight to watch and Pele afterwards was great. Incidentally Pele comes from the Yoruba area of Brazil in Belem where as a youngster playing soccer he would dodge and dive, as he still does and the children used to shout Pele, in Yoruba, meaning Sorry - "ekpele" - Sorry in that way is a typical thing Yoruba's say to each other when someone missed out something. Pele himself cannot speak Yoruba although he admitted his parents do."
So rights Chief Elwyn Williams, who is in fact Welsh (now with a b and b in Penygroes that I sometimes go to) but took a great interest in the Yoruba culture during his time in Nigeria.