Pelé appeared at Pelé: The Collection, presented by Julien’s Auctions in London on June 1, 2016.
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Pelé appeared at Pelé: The Collection, presented by Julien’s Auctions in London on June 1, 2016.
Neil Hall/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
RIO DE JANEIRO – Football star Edson Arantes do Nascimento – known to the world as Pelé – has passed away at the age of 82. He was battling complications of colon cancer and was admitted to the hospital. hospital in São Paulo last month.
One of his daughters, Kelly Nascimento, announced his death on Instagram – Show off a photo of a family member holding hands. “All we have is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace.”
Pelé has been the global face of football for decades and is considered by many as the best player of all time. He rose from humble beginnings in the Brazilian countryside to perpetuate a strong and creative play.
“He walks the field with one of those irresistible and deadly authority. I could say he’s a king,” wrote Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues while watching 17-year-old Pelé play in 2005. 1958.
Pelé continued to reign in global football for the next 20 years, including stints with the New York Cosmos, the only team outside of Brazil that he played for.
Brazilian striker Pelé dribbles past a defender during a friendly in 1960.
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AFP via Getty Images
Brazilian striker Pelé dribbles past a defender during a friendly in 1960.
AFP via Getty Images
Making art football
It’s a 1958in one of the first televised World Cups, Pelé debuted to a global audience as a young striker.
In the final game of the tournament against Sweden, he swam the ball over his defender’s head and put it in the net. Then, he headed home another goal, cementing the victory (at the age of 17, he still youngest player to score in the World Cup). At the time, Brazil’s economy was booming and the team’s euphoria became the symbol of the country itself.
“The whole world is interested in football, and the greatest player is Brazilian,” says Brazilian sports commentator Marcelo Barreto. “I think we relate to Pelé because of his creativity.”
Pelé visits the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, on September 2, 2017.
Image Xavi Torrent/Getty
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Image Xavi Torrent/Getty
Transparent a profession Including three World Cup titles — more than any other player in history — and more than 1,200 goals, Pelé is known for his flair and unpredictability. He will outmaneuver his opponents by dribbling over their shins. He was also a soccer player and was one of the early pioneers of the reverse bike kick, a leap up on a ball in the air to shoot it backwards.
Barreto says Pelé’s athleticism could easily have made him a star in athletics as well as football. “He can run 100 meters in about 11 seconds. He can kick with his right and left foot. It’s as if his strength serves the beauty of the game.”
From a young age, Pelé’s greatness was clear. Children surrounded the Brazilian superstar asking for autographs.
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Press Center / Getty Images
From a young age, Pelé’s greatness was clear. Children surrounded the Brazilian superstar asking for autographs.
Press Center / Getty Images
Rise from humble roots
Pelé grew up watching his father play professionally in a small town in southeastern Brazil. He played on the street, where he got his nickname, and then in the youth leagues. There, a former Brazilian national team player coached him and oversaw his move to club Santos, near São Paulo, at the age of fifteen.
At the gym in Santos, he adds judo and karate to his workouts. His teammate Mengálvio Figueiró said most talented players like Pelé don’t worry too much about their physical condition, but Pelé has “run to the front of the line to do laps around the pitch.”
Pelé said in a CNN interview that he tried to follow the lesson from his father: “If you concentrate, if you are in good health – no one can stop you.”
Pelé and teammates at the New York Cosmos line up before the NASL semi-final against the Rochester Lancers at Giants Stadium on August 24, 1977.
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George Tiedemann/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
According to journalist Andrew Downie, when starting to bring victories for Santos with a strong attacking team, Pelé’s career also coincided with the golden age of Brazilian sports. Downie said: Brothers Nelson Rodrigues and Mario Filho, also known for their playwriting and political journalism, enjoyed covering football matches, especially Pelé’s, with “a sense of humor.” witty and shrewd”. “People would buy newspapers to see what they were saying,” and packed stadiums to see what would happen next.
A Pelé goal past six defenders and inspiring a standing ovation for nearly two minutes in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã stadium prompted a sports journalist to not only cover it in the newspaper, but also arranged to have a commemorative plaque plastered on the sports hall, giving birth to a Brazilian idiom for any feat accomplished brilliantly: “goal worth scoring”.
Pellet was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee, Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, and Joint Player of the Century by FIFA. He is an honorary knight of the British Empire and served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Minister of Sports of Brazil, where he oversaw new labor rights legislation for athletes.
Pelé, seen in Canada on May 10, 1978, has a contagious smile and is always playful.
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Boris Spremo / Toronto Star via Getty Images
Symbolizes the game of the world
Throughout his life, Pelé has devoted himself to spreading the image of the power of football beyond national borders.
One of the most famous photographs in sports history is of him hugging England defender Bobby Moore at a match. 1970 World Cup. Santos has attracted exhibition game fans around the world, and Pelé proudly recounts that world leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are among his admirers. In the late 1970s, he played for the New York Cosmos, fueling American interest in the game. On the day Pelé retired, he repeated his positive message in front of a packed stadium, asking fans to repeat the word “Love” to him three times.
But even while supporting the idea of football as a unified thing, Pele’s life is intertwined with racial and political divisions at home. One of his biographers, Angelica Basthi, said that after Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup to a Black goalkeeper, a racist story went viral that Black footballers were not worth it. trust.
Until the 1958 victory, that is, when “people started to see Black players through Pelé’s talent.”
Even so, black Brazilian civil rights leaders later criticized Pelé for ignoring calls to denounce racism in their country, saying: “He was betting on a previous story” that his success disproves racial barriers. Pelé faced criticism for his other actions off the pitch, including his fierce battle against the legal recognition of one of his daughters.
He often responds to criticism by saying that Pelé, the player, is different from Edson, the man, who has flaws.
Marcelo Barreto says that today, Brazilians are starting to judge athletes more because of the political implications of their actions. “We’re slowly starting to understand that it’s not just football. That football is not separate from our society, from our lives.”
Young or old, Pelé feels at home on the field with a ball close by. He is a champion and cheerleader for the game.
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Keystone / Getty Images
Young or old, Pelé feels at home on the field with a ball close by. He is a champion and cheerleader for the game.
Keystone / Getty Images
On the sporting front, Barreto said, Pelé continues to represent the country’s great potential for many Brazilians.
As the pace, geography and gender of the world’s best football have changed since Pelé’s heyday, it continues to attract billions of people.
Pelé accompanied the careers of young Brazilian and international players until the end of their lives. In 2011, he said, “I think it’s always going to be a good match.”
