News reaching us is that the former footballer had undergone treatment for colon cancer for about 1 year now. He was admitted in the hospital for the last month,November, with multiple ailments.The death of the great footballer was confirmed by Joe Fraga, his agent.
Widely recognized as one of football’s greatest players, Pelé spent nearly twenty years enchanting football lovers as the game’s most scorer with Brazilian team Santos and the Brazil national team.
Some sources, counting different sets of games, list Pelé’s goal totals as anywhere between 650 (league matches) and 1,281 (all senior matches, some against low-level competition.)
Pele who would be dubbed “The King” was introduced to the world at 17 at the 1958 durng a World Cup in Sweden, the youngest player to play at the tournament. He was cheered and carried off the field on teammates’ shoulders after scoring two goals in Brazil’s 5-2 victory over the host country. fans throughout the world remember Pelé with a brilliant yellow Brazil jersey with the No. 10 printed on the back.
Pelé’s celebrity was such that in 1967, factions in Nigeria’s civil war agreed to a brief cease-fire so that he could play an exhibition match in the country. In 1997, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II knighted him. When he came to Washington to help popularize the game in North America, it was the president of the United States who extended his hand first.
“My name is Ronald Reagan, and I am the President of the United States of America,” the host introduced his guest. “However, there’s no need for you to identify yourself because everyone knows who Pelé is.”
Pelé was Brazil’s first modern Black national hero, yet he rarely spoke out against racism in a country where the rich and powerful are predominantly white.
At home and around the world, opposing fans mocked Pelé with monkey chants.
“He stated he would never play if he had to stop every time he heard those shouts,” one of Pelé’s biographers, Angelica Basthi, said. “He is crucial to the pride of Black people in Brazil, but he never sought to be a flagbearer.”
Pelé’s life beyond football took several shapes. He was a politician – Brazil’s Extraordinary Minister for Sport – a wealthy businessman, and a UNESCO and UN ambassador.
He appeared in films and soap operas, and he also wrote songs and recorded CDs of popular Brazilian music.
His travels and public appearances grew less frequent as his health deteriorated. During his latter years, he was frequently seen in a wheelchair and did not attend a ceremony to unveil a statue of him representing Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team. Pelé spent his 80th birthday alone at a seaside house with a few family members.
Pelé was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on October 23, 1940, in the little town of Tres Coracoes in the interior of Minas Gerais state. He grew up cleaning shoes to pay for his basic soccer equipment.
Pelé’s talent garnered notice when he was 11 years old, and a local professional player recruited him for Santos’ youth groups. It didn’t take him long to make it to the senior team.
Despite his youth and 5-foot-8 frame, he scored with the same ease he did against buddies back home. He made his debut with the Brazilian team at the age of 16 in 1956, and the club immediately achieved international acclaim.
Pelé was derived by him mispronouncing the name of a footballer named Bilé.He was a reserve at the 1958 World Cup, but he became an important member of his country’s championship team. His first goal was recognized as one of the best in World Cup history, in which he flicked the ball over the head of a defender and ran around him to volley it home before it reached the ground.
The 1966 World Cup in England, won by the hosts, was a bittersweet experience for Pelé, who was already regarded as the best player in the world at the time. Brazil was eliminated in the group stage, and Pelé, enraged by the treatment, said that it would be his final World Cup.
In the 1970 World Cup, he changed his mind and was revitalized. In a game against England, he scored with a header, but the famous goalkeeper Gordon Banks flipped the ball over the bar in an incredible effort. Pelé compared the save, which was one of the best in World Cup history, to a “salmon going up a waterfall.” Later, in his final World Cup match, he scored the opening goal against Italy.
Pelé appeared in 114 matches for Brazil, scoring a total of 95 goals, including 77 in official matches.
His tenure with Santos lasted three decades, ending with his semi-retirement following the 1972 season. Rich European clubs attempted to sign him, but the Brazilian government intervened and declared him a national treasure, preventing him from being sold.
Pelé’s passion, vision, and ingenuity on the pitch propelled a gifted Brazilian national team with a fast, fluid style of play that typified “O Jogo Bonito” — Portuguese for “The Beautiful Game.” His 1977 book, “My Life and the Beautiful Game,” popularized the phrase.
He joined the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos in 1975. Pelé, despite being 34 and past his prime, helped to raise the profile of soccer in North America. He led the Cosmos to the league championship in 1977 and scored 64 goals in three seasons.
Pelé’s career came to an end on October 1, 1977, in front of a 77,000-person crowd in New Jersey during an exhibition between the Cosmos and Santos. He spent half of the game with each club. Among the dignitaries in attendance was possibly the world’s most famous sportsman, Muhammad Ali.
Pelé faced personal difficulties, particularly when his son Edinho was arrested on drug-related charges. Pelé had two unmarried daughters and five children from his first two marriages to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi and Assiria Seixas Lemos. He later married Marcia Cibele Aoki, a businesswoman.
