SAO PAULO, Dec 29 (Portal) – Pele, the legendary Brazilian soccer player who rose from barefoot poverty to become one of the greatest and most well-known athletes in modern history, died on Thursday at the age of 82.
The Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, where Pele was treated, said he died at 3:27 p.m. “due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer related to his previous condition.”
The death of the only man to be a three-time world champion as a player was confirmed on his Instagram account.
“Inspiration and love shaped the journey of King Pele, who passed away peacefully today,” it said, adding that he “enchanted the world with his genius in sports, ended a war, carried out social works around the world and that, what he spread, spread Most believe that they are the cure for all our problems: love.
Tributes poured in from all worlds of sport, politics and popular culture for a figure who embodied Brazil’s dominance of beautiful football.
The government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is stepping down from office on Sunday, declared a three-day mourning and said in a statement that Pele was “a great citizen and patriot who elevates the name of Brazil everywhere he went.”
Bolsonaro’s successor, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wrote on Twitter that “few Brazilians have carried our country’s name as far as he has.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Pele’s legacy will live forever. “The game. The king. Eternity,” Macron tweeted.
Pele had been undergoing chemotherapy since having a tumor removed from his colon in September 2021.
He has also had trouble walking unaided since an unsuccessful hip surgery in 2012. In February 2020, on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic, his son Edinho said Pele’s ill physical condition depressed him.
On Monday, a 24-hour vigil for Pele will take place in the middle of the field at the stadium of Santos, his hometown club where he started playing as a teenager and quickly rose to fame.
The next day, a procession carries his coffin through the streets of Santos, passing the neighborhood where his 100-year-old mother lives and ending at the cemetery of the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis, where he will be buried in a private ceremony.
‘WHAT IS POSSIBLE’
US President Joe Biden said on Twitter that Pele’s rise from humble beginnings to football legend is a story of “what is possible”.
Pele, whose first name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, joined Santos in 1956 and transformed the small seaside club into one of the most recognizable names in football.
[1/4] Legendary Brazilian soccer player Pele waves to spectators before the start of the under-17 boys’ final soccer match of the Subroto Cup tournament at Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, India October 16, 2015. Portal/Anindito Mukherjee
In addition to numerous regional and national titles, Pele has won two Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, and two Intercontinental Cups, the annual tournament played between the best teams in Europe and South America.
He took home three medals as world champion, the first time as a 17-year-old in Sweden in 1958, the second in Chile four years later – although he missed most of the tournament through injury – and the third in Mexico in 1970, when he led one of the greatest teams of all time.
He retired from Santos in 1974 but made a surprise comeback a year later by signing a lucrative deal to join the New York Cosmos in the then-nascent North American Soccer League.
In a glorious 21-year career, he scored between 1,281 and 1,283 goals, depending on how games are counted.
However, Pele transcended football like no player before or since, becoming one of the first global icons of the 20th century.
With his winning smile and overwhelming humility that charmed countless fans, he was better known than many Hollywood stars, popes or presidents – many, if not most, he met during his six-decade career as a gaming and corporate executive.
“I’m sad but I’m also proud to be Brazilian, to come from Pele’s country, a guy who was a great athlete,” said Ciro Campos, a 49-year-old biologist in Rio de Janeiro. “And he was also a cool person off the pitch, not an arrogant athlete.”
Pele attributed his unique blend of talent, creative genius, and technical skill to a youth who played pick-up games in a small town in Brazil, often using grapefruit or balled up rags because his family couldn’t afford a real ball.
Pele has been named “Athlete of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee, “Footballer of the Century” by FIFA, and a “National Treasure” by the Brazilian government.
His fame was often overwhelming. Adults regularly burst into tears in his presence. When he was a player, souvenir-seeking fans rushed onto the field after games and ripped off his shorts, socks and even underwear.
His home in Brazil was less than a mile from a beach, but he didn’t go there for about two decades for fear of crowds.
Yet even in unguarded moments among friends, he rarely complained. Believing his talent was a gift from God, he spoke movingly about how football allowed him to travel the world, bring joy to cancer patients and survivors of war and famine, and provide for a family that grew up often did not know the source of their next meal.
“God gave me this ability for one reason: to make people happy,” he said in a 2013 interview with Portal. “No matter what I did, I tried not to forget it.”
The Brazilian football federation CBF said: “Pele was much more than the greatest sportsman of all time… The king of football was the ultimate exponent of a victorious Brazil.”
Kylian Mbappé, the French star who many consider to be the best footballer in the world right now, also expressed his condolences.
“The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten,” he wrote on Twitter. “RIP KING.”
Reporting by Andrew Downie and Gabriel Araujo; Additional reporting by Peter Frontini, Carolina Pulice and Sergio Queiroz; Edited by Gabriel Stargardter, Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien
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