The Brazilian star is considered one of the best soccer players in history and dazzled the planet between the 1950s and 1970s. His formidable nose for goal, his technical and physical superiority on the field of play, and his historic feat will remain for history. having won three world cups with his team in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
The world mourns the loss of ‘O Rei’. Pelé, who for many is the best striker in the history of world football and one of the best footballers on the planet, has passed away on December 29 at the age of 82. He leaves behind him a legend that has led him to be admired by millions of people around the world and from different generations. A career full of successes in Santos, the team of his soul, and with the Brazilian team will forever remain in his palmares.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on October 23, 1940 in the state of Minas Gerais into a family linked to the ball. His father, João Ramos do Nascimento Dondinho, was a soccer player for Atlético Mineiro until an injury ended his career and Pelé lived passionately from a very young age everything that surrounded the ball. From a young age he began to play in the lower categories of various teams until in 1956, when he was just 16 years old, he was signed by Santos.
His family reluctantly accepted having to move to São Paulo so that their son could develop as a professional, since his mother doubted that they could make a living from football given the bad experience that Pelé’s father had had with injuries, but reality soon He showed them otherwise. The young Pelé demonstrated from his first games his goalscoring efficiency and a prodigious physique that made him superior to most of his rivals.
Pelé, the young footballer who dazzled from the beginning and fell in love with the public in Sweden in 1958
During his first years as a professional, he managed to gain a foothold in the Santista team and was key to its success in the 1958 Paulista Tournament. Despite his youth, his name began to resonate with increasing force in the metropolitan area. of São Paulo and in the rest of the country to the point that Vicente Feola, the then coach of Brazil, decided to bet on him for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden ahead of other figures of the time such as Luizinho, the great star of Corinthians .
Pelé came to a defeatist Brazil. The blow suffered by the ‘Canarinha’ in the 1950 World Cup final against Uruguay had been traumatic for the vast majority of the nation’s soccer fans. This match, known worldwide as El Maracanazo, saw Brazil lose the final 1-2 after a spectacular comeback by Uruguay before a packed Maracana stadium with more than 170,000 souls supporting Brazil.
However, the Brazilian star arrived to change this thought. Although he began the 1958 tournament with doubts and physical discomfort, in the quarterfinals he scored a goal against Wales that would put his team through to the semifinals against a powerful France that came as one of the favorite teams to opt for the World Cup. In that match, the ‘Canarihna’ swept the French team with a resounding 5-2 in which Pelé scored a hat-trick.
The final was played against the host, Sweden, a team that had been characterized in recent years by its defensive solidity, but could not stop the offensive whirlwind of Brazil, which began to create what would later be known as ‘jogo bonito’. ‘. In this match, the Brazilians managed to defeat the hosts by another resounding 5-2 and a majestic game in which Pelé once again scored a brace.
In this way ‘O Rei’ became world champion with his team for the first time at just 17 years old. The start of a career that would catapult him to the pinnacle of worldwide success. For history there will be the image of a very young Pelé crying with joy on the shoulder of the Brazilian goalkeeper Gilmar.
Second World Cup and a career full of titles and goals with Santos
Under his leadership, Santos experienced a golden age of absolute dominance in Brazilian soccer. Between 1959 and 1969 this team was champion of all the Paulista Championships that were played, the prestigious São Paulo regional league and six Brazilian leagues between 1961 and 1968. The reason for these trophies is the scandalous number of goals scored by Pelé.
Throughout his career, the Brazilian star scored 1,284 goals in 1,351 games, although only 757 were in official matches. This makes Pelé one of the top scorers globally and with 77 goals for Brazil he is the top scorer in the history of his team.
At the age of 21, and those numbers, Pelé arrived at the 1962 World Cup in Chile leading a team that started in all bets as the favorite to repeat the title. However, Pelé was barely able to play the first two games of the tournament against Mexico and Czechoslovakia, since for the third game of the preliminary phase against Spain his groin problems kept him off the pitch.
This complicated situation did not prevent Brazil from continuing to play the tournament with great brilliance thanks to the emergence of new figures such as Garrincha and Amarildo who made the ‘Canarinha’ play their second consecutive World Cup final and beat Czecholovaquia 3-1. This World Cup could barely be played by Pelé, but the star was part of the team from the beginning to the end of the tournament.
‘O Rei’ was also an international champion with his club, winning two Copa Libertadores –the first in Brazilian football– against Peñarol and Boca Juniors in 1962 and 1963 and managing to defeat Benfica and AC Milan in those same years in the Intercontinental Cup that faced the champions of the Libertadores with the champions of the European Cup. These encounters made his figure even bigger.
During the 1960s, the game played by ‘O Rei’ gradually turned him into a legend admired throughout the world. His football was based on an incredible definition in front of goal that allowed him to be tremendously effective with both legs. A capacity for execution that was accompanied by extraordinary speed, technique and physical capacity that left most defenders of the time behind.
Critics have always pointed out that Pelé’s main problem is that he never played a regular tournament with a European team –in more professionalized leagues and with a greater study of the game–, but his quality was demonstrated against these teams in the international tournaments he came to. to dispute with Santos and in the innumerable exhibition tours that took him around the world. All this without counting on the exhibition that the Brazilian star came to give in the World Cups.
The only stains on his sporting credit may be that he never won any Copa América with his team and the World Cup he played in England in 1966. That year the ‘Canarinha’ was going through a generational transition phase and had numerous problems prior to the tournament. A situation that meant that the team was eliminated in the first round against all odds and that Pelé presented his premature retirement from the national team.
Mexico 1970, third world cup and withdrawal
Despite this, Pelé decided to return to the national team in 1969 under the orders of Mário Zagallo, with the aim of preparing for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. It was sensed that this tournament would be Pelé’s farewell to professional football and his opportunity to redeem himself from England 1966. Hopes came true thanks to the extraordinary championship held by Brazil, which won all its matches and left behind rivals such as England, Czechoslovakia, Peru and Uruguay, whom they managed to beat in the semifinals.
The final, played at the mythical Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, saw a formidable Brazil overwhelm Italy 4 goals to 1, the first of those goals scored by Pelé with a header. That was Pelé’s last great title, which he was lifted onto his shoulders at the end of the game, with the world cup in his arms, and crowned as ‘The King’ of world football.
His retirement from the Brazilian fields came in 1974. And although he returned to soccer to play a few seasons with the American team New York Cosmos, with whom he won a league, his final goodbye came in 1977, at the age of 36.
Recent years full of awards
After this moment, decades of recognition followed for the Brazilian star, who became one of the most idolized athletes in history. In the 1980s only one player, the Argentine Diego Armando Maradona, dared to challenge his legacy as the greatest soccer player of all time, although his record of palmares never equaled Pelé’s.
By the end of the 20th century, the Brazilian star was awarded the best soccer player of the 20th century along with Diego Armando Maradona by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee awarded him the award for best athlete of the century. His figure continued to be present especially in each World Cup, supporting the ‘Canarinha’ in each dispute and celebrating the World Cups that his compatriots won in 1994 and 2002, making the Brazilian team the most successful of all time, with five titles. .
Despite always being active in countless sporting and advertising events, Pelé began to lead a more discreet life in 2014 due to several health problems that he dragged on with age. The ex-soccer player had only one kidney and underwent numerous operations that weighed him down and physically weakened him. Furthermore, in 2021 he was diagnosed with colon cancer and has been hospitalized several times since. A health journey that finally ended his life this xxxx after he did not respond to chemotherapy and his state of health worsened remarkably.
Pelé’s legacy, however, will live on for decades and will be remembered especially among the millions of Brazilian fans. Pelé was one of the forerunners of modern football, one of the creators of the ‘jogo bonito’ that millions fell in love with and that turned Brazil into the football power it continues to be today. His plays, his physical deployment and his goals are still on the retina of the lucky ones who were able to see him play live and will last forever in the multiple recordings that exist of his displays on the pitch.
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