Pele Pele, the Brazilian legendary soccer player who has won the three World Cups and became the soccer’s first icon of the world was killed at the age 82.
“Everything that we are, is thanks to you,” his daughter Kely Nascimento said in a post on Instagram in the caption of his family members holding Pele’s hand. “We love you infinitely. Be at peace.”
Pele had been admitted into an institution at Sao Paulo in late November for a respiratory illness and complications relating to colon cancer. The hospital last week declared that his health had deteriorated as the cancer progressed. He died on Thursday of multiple organ failure as a result of the progress to colon cancer as per the statement of Albert Einstein Hospital.
Over the past 60 years over 60 years, Pele’s name Pele has been associated with soccer. Pele was a participant in 4 World Cups and is the only soccer player to win three. However, his legacy spanned far beyond his trophy collection and his remarkable record of scoring goals.
“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint,” Pele famously declared.
Many tributes have come out for the soccer icon. Pele’s original club, Santos FC, responded to the news via Twitter by posting the words “eternal” shared next to the image of an emerald crown.
Brazilian footballer Neymar Neymar has said that Pele “changed everything.” In his post on Instagram Neymar said: “He turned football into art, and entertainment. He was a voice for the marginalized black and minority groups, and, most importantly, he gave prominence to Brazil. The sport of football and Brazil have been elevated in their standing because of God!” he added.
Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo offered his sympathy to Brazil via Instagram and wrote “a simple “goodbye” to the eternal King Pele will never be enough to express the pain that currently engulfs the entire football world.”
Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain said of Pele’s passing: “The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten.”
A former English footballer Geoff Hurst wrote on Twitter of his fond memories of Pele who was the late legend “without doubt the greatest footballer I’ve ever played with (with Bobby Moore being the most outstanding footballer I’ve ever played with). For me, Pele remains the greatest player of all time, and I was very proud to have been playing with Pele. RIP Pele And thank you for everything.”
Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tweeted to pay tribute to Pele in a tweet, saying “few Brazilians took the name of our country as far as he did.”
“As different from Portuguese as the language was, foreigners from the four corners of the planet soon found a way to pronounce the magic word: ‘Pele,'” Lula said.
A wake for the public will be held in honour of Pele this Monday, at Urbano Caldeira stadium, popularly called Vila Belmiro. It is also the home of Santos football club within Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, according to a statement issued on Thursday by Santos FC.
The morning of Monday will see Pele’s body will be taken out of The Albert Einstein Hospital to the stadium. The coffin of the soccer legend will be positioned in the middle of the field.
The funeral held at Vila Belmiro will go on until Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the local time (8 a.m. ET) and then the funeral procession will transport Pele’s body through the streets of Santos which includes the street where her 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, lives.
The procession will go on to the final resting place of Pele in that is, the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica cemetery in Santos in which the funeral will be private, and specifically for family members, will be held.
Amazing capability
Pele was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento Tres Coracoes – an inland city about 155 miles north to Rio de Janeiro – in 1940, just before his family relocated in the direction in Bauru within Sao Paulo.
The origins of the nickname Pele is not clear even to the player. He wrote in the British publication The Guardian that it likely began with his schoolmates teasing him for using the name of a different player, Bile. Whatever the source the nickname was a constant.
When he was a kid the first time he had a taste of soccer was playing in barefoot, with socks and rags, then rolled into a ball. This was an insignificant beginning that would eventually lead to an extended and successful career.
However, when he first started taking on the sport his expectations were modest.
“My dad was a good football player, he scored a lot of goals,” Pele stated to CNN in 2015. “His nickname was Dondinho and I always wanted to be like him..
“He is famous” in Brazil especially in Minas Gerais. His role models were my own. I’ve always wished to be like him however, the way that it happened to the present is something only God can answer.”
When he was a teenager, Pele left home and began to train with Santos in Brazil. He scored his debut goal with the team prior to his 16th birthday. Pele would later score 619 goals in his 638 games at the Santos club however it’s his accomplishments wearing the famous blue and yellow of Brazil for which he’s most remembered.
The world got its first glimpse of the dazzling talent of Pele in the year 1958, when Pele was making his World Cup debut aged 17. He scored Brazil’s sole goal in Brazil’s quarterfinal win over Wales Then he scored three goals in the semifinal against France and two more in the final against the host Sweden.
“When Pele scored the fifth goal in that final, I have to be honest and say I felt like applauding,” said Sweden’s Sigvard Parling.
For Pele his most memorable moment from the event was the one that put his country’s name on the sporting map.
“When we won the World Cup, everybody knew about Brazil,” he said to the CNN’s Don Riddell in 2016. “I think this was the most important thing I gave to my country because we were well known after that World Cup.”
A second World Cup victory came in 1962, but an injury kept Pele during the final stages. Additional injuries hindered his subsequent campaign in 1966 when Brazil quit the tournament following the group stage, however the turnaround came in the year 1970.
“Pele was saying that we were going to win, and if Pele was saying that, then we were going to win the World Cup,” Brazil’s co-captain Carlos Alberto said about the tournament.
This team, which includes players like Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, Rivellino, and, obviously, Pele – is regarded as the best ever put together.
In the final, the 4-1 win over Italy in the final – Brazil scored perhaps some of the best-known World Cup goal of all time. It was a dramatic long-of-the-pitch movement that involved nine of Brazil’s 10 outfield players.
The game ended with Pele getting ready to tee up Alberto who drove through the lower edge of the net. Brazil’s anthem of the jogo bonito (the beautiful game) has never been more beautifully than it is now.
Pele who was contemplating to retire prior to that 1970 World Cup, scored a goal himself in the final, and four more throughout the tournament.
“Before the match, I told myself that Pele was just flesh and bones like the rest of us,” Italian defenseman Tarcisio Burgnich said following his team’s defeat at the end of the match. “Later, I realized I’d been wrong.”
The event was the culmination of the Pele’s World Cup career but not his period being in the limelight. In 1975 Pele signed an $1.67-million-a-year deal for the United States with the New York Cosmos.
One of the most renowned players.
With his exuberant personality and impressive dribbling skills that are a hallmark of his sport – Pele played a role in helping the Cosmos take home their first North American Soccer League championship in 1977 prior to officially stepping down from the sport in 1977.
The team was a magnet for other famous names such as Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer It didn’t last long, finally being dissolved in 1984. But all over the world Pele’s influence remained.
He was prominent in the media through endorsement deals as well as an outspoken political figure who advocated for the poor in Brazil. He was an Goodwill UNICEF ambassador for many years, advocating peace and assisting vulnerable children.
The health issues persisted throughout the majority of the rest of his life. He walked using the walker – one of the things he was seen pushing around with a smug smile in a documentary that was released earlier this year. Then, in September 2021, Pele underwent surgery to remove a tumor in his right colon.
Pele’s treatment for cancer continued throughout the last year. Pele was admitted to hospital at Sao Paulo in November as the 2022 World Cup was being played in Qatar which prompted an outpouring of support from the world soccer community as well as the world beyond.
The debate will always be over how Pele is the greatest soccer player of all time , and how do you draw comparisons between his achievements and the feats from Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, who have changed the record books of soccer over the past 15 years or even to Diego Maradona, the late Argentinian superstar who won the hearts of soccer fans throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The year 2000 saw FIFA conjointly named Maradona as well as Pele as the Player of the Century. for some, the absolute winners of the prize would be obvious.
“This debate about the player of the century is absurd,” Zico said. Zico who played for Brazil in the decade that followed Pele’s retirement. “There’s only one option: Pele. He’s the best player ever and by a significant distance, I’d say.”
The exact number of goals Pele scored in his career is not clear and the Guinness World Records tally has been scrutinized due to numerous goals scores in non-official matches.
He was in March of 2021 when he thanked Portugal’s Ronaldo for breaking the “record of goals in official matches” 767.
There’s no doubt that Pele was and forever will be football’s most iconic world-class star.
“If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best,” the athlete said to The Talks online magazine. “My sport allowed me to do so much because it’s the biggest sport in the world.”
