It has become common knowledge that there were two figures inhabiting the same body. One, a human being like any other, was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a poor boy from the interior of Minas Gerais. The other, Pelé, a “God” of football, whose skills cannot be explained or replicated.
On Thursday (29), the world lost the first figure, Edson Arantes do Nascimento (82), who had been battling colon cancer for over a year. The second, Pelé, is legendary, is eternal. He will never die. As long as football exists, or even if one day it ceases to be played, Pelé will forever be the “King” of this sport.
Pelé was discovered by the world when he debuted in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. A star of Brazil, the skinny 17-year-old scored six goals in the tournament, including three in the semifinal against France and two in the final, in the 5-2 victory over Sweden.
Pelé also played for the Brazilian teams that won the World Cup in 1962 and 1970. In the 1966 tournament in England, he was injured in the early matches and ended up sidelined. With Pelé’s absence, Brazil was eliminated in the first round. He was so disheartened that he announced he would retire from the national team.
But, to the joy of Brazil and the world, he reconsidered and played for the Brazilian National Team in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. This team is widely acclaimed as the best of all time.
The only player to win three World Cups (I wonder if it weren’t for the injury in 1966, would it have been four), Pelé became a global idol. But it wasn’t just because of the World Cup victories. In his 21-year career, he scored 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches, including 77 goals for the Brazilian national team.
Many of these goals became legendary, but Pelé’s influence on the sport went far beyond scoring goals. He helped create and promote what later came to be called “the beautiful game,” a style that valued intelligent ball control, inventive and precise passing, and a voracious appetite for attacking. Pelé played this style better than anyone.
In addition to his skill with the ball, he had a remarkable center of gravity; he could accelerate, decelerate, or spin in the blink of an eye. Off-balance or not, he could strike the ball with precision with either foot. Relatively short, he could, however, jump exceptionally high, often seeming to hover in the air to put power into a header. In other words, things of a God.
At a time when there was no internet, reporters from around the world reported on the feats of this boy who played in a different way. The success was immediate. Even without YouTube, everyone wanted to see him play. Even without Instagram, the world began to follow him.
Santos, the team for which Pelé started playing when he was 15 and played his entire professional career, also gained international notoriety. In the 1960s, a period when the team was almost unbeatable, the club traveled extensively, playing matches in various countries and thus gaining more admirers around the world.
Pelé took football even to places where football practically did not exist. After ending his career with Santos and the Brazilian National Team in the 1970s, the King was invited to play for the Cosmos, a newly created team in New York that needed a “boost” from a star to try to popularize the sport in the United States, which at that time was almost non-existent.
Of course, it worked. In all away games during Pelé’s three seasons in North America, the Cosmos attracted a huge crowd and a larger press contingent than any other team.
The Cosmos moved to Giants Stadium in Pelé’s last season, 1977, and there, in Meadowlands, reached the peak of its popularity. In a game on August 14 of that year, a crowd of 77,691 not only exceeded expectations but also the stadium’s capacity, which was 76,000 seats.
But, as we know, professional football was still not ready to flourish in the United States. But at the grassroots level and in schools and colleges, football took off. In 1991, the United States women’s national team won the first Women’s World Cup. (The United States has won three times since then.) In 2002, the men’s national team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. And Major League Soccer established itself as a strong successor to the N.A.S.L.
Pelé then became synonymous with mastery. If you are the best in physics, you are the “Pelé of physics.” Or if you try to do something that is beyond your ability: “stop because you are no Pelé.” Pelé elevated football. It is thanks to him that this sport is the most popular in the world. Pelé elevated Brazil. It is thanks to him that Brazilian football is known and admired anywhere on this planet.
In 2014, when the Pelé Museum was inaugurated in the city of Santos, in a video Pelé said: “It is a great joy to pass through this world and be able to leave, for future generations, some memories, and leave a legacy for my country.”
Pelé did not leave. Pelé remains.