Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, a three-time world champion who is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, has died. He was 82 years old.
His daughter Kely confirmed his death on social media.
“Everything we are we owe to you,” she wrote. “We love you forever. Rest in peace.”
Brazil has planned a 48-hour national mourning. Pele, whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is to be buried in Santos, southeast of Sao Paulo, where he played for the city’s club from 1956 to 1974.
The club said in a statement that the public can pay their last respects at Vila Belmiro Stadium, according to the Associated Press.
Santos said the coffin with the star will leave the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo early Monday morning and will be placed in the center circle of the field. The visit begins at 10 a.m. Monday and ends the next morning, the AP reported. A private funeral follows, attended by his family.
Pelé had been hospitalized on and off for the past year while battling colon cancer. In November, Albert Einstein Hospital announced that his cancer was advanced and he was on palliative care.
The hospital confirmed that Pelé died at 3:27 p.m. local time from multiple organ failure resulting from colon cancer.
Brazilian striker Pele before a friendly match with his club against French club “Racing”, June 13, 1961 in Colombes, France.
AFP via Getty Images, FILE
The soccer star was hospitalized in December 2021 shortly after undergoing chemotherapy to treat a reported colon tumour. He had posted on Instagram that he was recovering.
For the past year, Pele has dismissed fears about his health and continued to thank fans for their support.
“Dear friends, it’s been a while since we talked about this. I want to let you know that I’m fine. I feel better every day. I don’t think even the mask to protect me can hide my happiness. Thank you very much to all of you who send me good energy everyday,” he wrote in a November 2021 post on Instagram.
Named FIFA Co-Player of the Century alongside Argentina’s Diego Maradona in 1999, Pelé spent his retirement as a global ambassador for sport and devoted himself to other humanitarian causes. When Maradona died in 2020, Pelé said: “I hope one day we can play football together in the sky.”
Pelé was born on October 23, 1940 in the town of Tres Coracoes in the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him after US inventor Thomas Edison. Pelé’s father, João Ramos do Nascimento, nicknamed Dondinho, was also a professional soccer player.
Young Edson earned the nickname Pelé at school when his schoolmates mocked his pronunciation of popular Brazilian goalkeeper Bilé, he explained in a 2016 column for The Players’ Tribune.
He started playing in a youth team in Bauru when he was 13 years old. He was spotted by Santos when he was 15 and started playing professionally with the team.
Edson Arantes Do Nascimento Pele of Brazil celebrates victory after winning the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images
At just 17, he became a superstar with his performance in Brazil’s victorious 1958 World Cup and played his entire career in Brazil with Santos. He scored a staggering 618 goals in 636 games with Santos and won six Brazilian league titles.
Pelé won two more World Cup titles – in 1962 and 1970. He is the only player to have won three World Cups and one of only two players – along with teammate Vava – to have scored in two World Cup finals for winning teams.
In 92 international matches he scored 77 goals. Brazilian striker Neymar equaled his national record during the 2022 World Cup just weeks before Pelé’s death by scoring his 77th goal in a game against Croatia.
“I would say before Pele, football was just a sport. Pele changed everything,” Neymar wrote on social media. “He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to the black people, and above all to making Brazil visible… He’s gone, but his magic remains.”
He ended his storied career with the New York Cosmos in 1977, creating an unprecedented level of enthusiasm for football in the United States. The club, funded by pioneering TV executive Steven Ross, brought in stars like Pelé, Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia and German defender Franz Beckenbauer. Aside from Santos, the Cosmos was the only club Pelé ever played for.
His last game on October 1, 1977, an exhibition game between the Cosmos and Santos, was played to a capacity crowd at Giants Stadium. The game was televised on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Pelé played one half for each team.
“Pelé’s name will forever be synonymous with athletic artistry and genius,” the Cosmos said in a statement. “His lasting influence on football is invaluable. Rest in peace, O Rei.”
He later starred alongside Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine in John Huston’s 1981 World War II sports film Escape to Victory.
A biopic about his life, Pele: Birth of a Legend, was released in 2016.
“A mere ‘goodbye’ from the eternal King Pele will never be enough to express the pain that the entire footballing world is currently embracing,” wrote Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the only man to have scored in more World Cups than Pele. “An inspiration to so many millions, a reference yesterday, today and forever. The love you always showed me was returned in every moment we shared, even from a distance. He will never be forgotten and his memory will live on in each and every one of us football lovers forever.”
Pelé is widely credited with sparking interest in the game in the United States in the 1970s, a legacy that continues today.
“Pelé had a magnetic presence and when you were with him, the rest of the world stopped. His life revolves around more than football. He changed perceptions for the better in Brazil, in South America and around the world,” said Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, said in a statement on Thursday.
He is survived by his wife Marcia Aoki and seven children: Brazilian soccer coach and former player Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, better known as Edinho; daughter Sandra Regina Machado Arantes do Nascimento; soccer player Joshua Nascimento; son Celeste Arantes do Nascimento; and three other daughters, Kely Cristina Nascimento, Flávia Christina Kurtz Nascimento and Jennifer Nascimento.