The soccer idol King Pelé whose nickname has been known for long and sustained success: “It was a pleasure to be alive,” says Brazilian legend Don Riddell
After reading about the passing of King Pelé, the Portuguese star forward wrote on his social media page that he “would never be able to express the pain that is currently engulfing the entire football world.”
Pelé was admitted to a hospital in São Paulo in late November for a respiratory infection and for complications related to colon cancer. Last week, the hospital said his health had worsened as his cancer progressed. He died on Thursday from multiple organ failure due to the progression of colon cancer, according to a statement from Albert Einstein Hospital.
The name Pelé has been associated with soccer for more than 60 years. He was the only player to win three World cups and was the only player who had a goal scoring record of over 100 points in four World cups.
The magic word in Portuguese was discovered by foreigners from the four corners of the planet, as different from Portuguese as the language was.
The wake at Vila Belmiro will continue until Tuesday 10 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET), after which a funeral procession will carry Pelé’s coffin through the streets of the city of Santos, including the street where Pelé’s 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, lives.
The family of Pelé moved to the city of Bauru in So Pauli after he was born, at the end of the 1940’s.
It is not clear as to the origin of the nickname Pel. He once wrote in the British newspaper The Guardian that it likely started with school classmates teasing him for mangling the nickname of another player, Bilé. The name stuck regardless of the origin.
When he was a kid, his first taste of soccer came from playing barefoot with socks and rags rolling up into a ball, a humble beginning that would lead to a long and fruitful career.
“Pelé is an idol, the best player in the world,” said Augusto. She recalls her father taking a bus to the coastal city of Santos to watch Pelé play. “Many kids, many players, were inspired by him. He is our biggest sports idol.”
He told CNN’s Don Riddell that when they won the World Cup everyone knew about Brazil. “I think this was the most important thing I gave to my country because we were well known after that World Cup.”
Pelé injured himself in the later stages of the World Cup in 1962, but the victory was still achieved. Brazil exited the competition after the group stage in 1966 but redemption came in 1970, as he only had injuries to contend with at that time.
“Pelé was saying that we were going to win, and if Pelé was saying that, then we were going to win the World Cup,” Brazil’s co-captain Carlos Alberto said about the tournament.
In the final – a 4-1 victory against Italy – Brazil scored arguably the most famous World Cup goal of all time, a sweeping, length-of-the-pitch move involving nine of the team’s 10 outfield players.
It ended with Pelé teeing up Alberto, who drilled the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Brazil’s motto of jogo bonito is encapsulated to the fullest.
Tarcisio Burgnich said before the match that Pelé was just flesh and bones, like the rest of us. “Later, I realized I’d been wrong.”
The tournament capped Pelé’s World Cup career but not his time in the spotlight. In 1975, he signed a contract worth more than $1M a year in the US.
The league, which attracted further big names like Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer, wouldn’t last, ultimately folding in 1984. But around the world, Pelé’s influence endured.
He remained in the public eye through endorsement deals and as an outspoken political voice who championed the poor in Brazil. He served as a Goodwill UNICEF ambassador for many years, promoting peace and support for vulnerable children.
“This debate about the player of the century is absurd,” said Zico, who represented Brazil in the decade after Pelé’s retirement. “There’s only one possible answer: Pelé. He is the greatest player of all time, and I might add that he is by some distance.
There is a question as to how many goals Pelé scored during his career, and his Guinness World Records tally has come under scrutiny.
Pelé’s goal against a Brazilian goalkeeper: a golden age of sports writing and racial and political divides in Brazil
“If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best,” he told The Talks online magazine. “My sport allowed me to do so much because it’s the biggest sport in the world.”
“If you are focused and have good health, nobody’s going to stop you,” Pelé was quoted as saying in an interview with CNN.
He hit the ball high over his defenders head and into the net for the game winning goal in the tournament finale against Sweden. He then headed in another goal, cementing a victory (at 17, he remains the youngest player to score in a World Cup). At the time, Brazil’s economy was booming, and the team’s exuberance became a symbol of the country itself.
“The whole world cares about football, and the biggest footballer was Brazilian,” says Brazilian sports commentator Marcelo Barreto. “I think we related to Pelé because of his creativity.”
At the gym at Santos, he added judo and karate to workouts. Pelé ran to the front of the line to do laps around the field because he didn’t worry about physical conditioning.
According to journalist Andrew Downie, Pel’s career coincides with the golden age of Brazilian sportswriting. Downie says the brothers Nelson and Mario Filho are good at covering soccer matches. “People would buy the newspaper to see what they were saying” and pack stadiums to see what would happen next.
One Pelé goal that blew past six defenders and inspired a near-two-minute standing ovation in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã stadium moved a sportswriter not only to recount it in newsprint, but also to arrange for a commemorative plaque to be affixed to the sporting arena, birthing a Brazilian expression for any gorgeously executed feat: “plaque-worthy goal.”
While he championed the idea of soccer as a unifying force, he was also intertwined with racial and political divides at home. After Brazil lost to Yugoslavia in the World Cup in 1950, a racist narrative spread about black soccer players, said one of his biographers.
Brazilians are starting to judge athletes more based on political implications, according to a report by Marcelo Barreto. “We are slowly beginning to understand that it’s not only soccer. Soccer is part of our life and society.
As a boy, Tavares and his cousins listened to Pelé’s World Cup games on the radio. His dazzling performance inspired them to play a game they had never seen, at first using a ball of socks and string.
Luz recounts those stories to his own two children, and shows them videos of the idol. He saw Pel in person for the first time at a game.
Nicolas, along with some 200 other people, stood outside of the stadium. Oliveira said that even replays of Pelé’s sensational playing make him swell with emotion.
There was a lawyer crying outside the hospital with a club flag wrapped around him. He came straight from work to pay tribute to the player who had inspired decades of stories.