Pele

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known the world over as Pele and as “King Pele” or just “The King” in his native Brazil, has died.

He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance, I might add.” “The flag of Brazil is Pelé,” said Ricardo Trade, the chief executive officer of Brazil’s local organising committee for the 2014 World Cup. Retired Brazilian star player Zico, who only on Wednesday, attended a celebrity game in Brazil wearing a “Eternal Pelé” T-shirt, said: “This debate about the player of the century is absurd. Recent reports in Brazilian media say she cannot leave her bed and is not lucid. FIFA named them joint winners of the award. “Rest in peace”.

'Never be forgotten': Messi, Ronaldo pay tribute as superstar Pele dies, aged 82.

He was often welcomed like royalty when traveling abroad with Santos or the national team. Pele dazzled from the age of 15, when he started playing professionally with Santos. The day we lost Pele,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. His parents named him for famed American inventor Thomas Edison. Pele declined offers to play in Europe, but signed for a brief, lucrative swan song with the Cosmos at the end of his career, bringing his star power to the land of “soccer.” Known for his genius with the ball, he epitomized the sublime style of play called “samba football” in Brazil, where he was declared a “national treasure.” Pele reached the pinnacle of his greatness at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, the first broadcast in color, where he starred on what many consider the greatest team of all time, with talents such as Rivellino, Tostao and Jairzinho. “Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. “Today, we all mourn the loss of the physical presence of our dear Pele, but he achieved immortality a long time ago and therefore he will be with us for eternity.” The wake for late Brazilian football legend Pele will be held on Monday local time and his funeral on Tuesday in Santos, the southeastern city where he played most of his career, his former club said after his death. “The wake for the greatest footballer of all time will be held in Urbano Caldeira Stadium, better known as the Vila Belmiro, where he enchanted the world,” Santos football club said in a statement, adding that Pele would then get a funeral procession through the city’s streets before a private burial ceremony.

Brazil great and three-time World Cup winner Pele has died at the age of 82.

"His headers were the best, his ball control was like no one else's, he was great with both legs. "Physically speaking he was a perfect athlete. "He wanted to get perfection.

The Brazilian football legend has passed away from cancer. A three-time FIFA World Cup winner and top scorer in the history of the men's Seleção alongside ...

In 1970, he became the first - and still only - player to win three World Cup titles, as part of a squad regarded as one of the greatest teams in the history of sports. Pelé was also part of the team that won the World Cup in 1962, and became a two-time club world champion with Santos. The nickname Pelé emerged when a young Edson couldn’t pronounce the name of goalkeeper Bilé, who played in his hometown. In 1956, he began playing for Santos, the team that launched him into stardom. Pelé was born in Tres Coracoes, in the state of Minas Gerais, on October 23 1940. An all-around footballer with a special talent, Pelé won fans across all continents of the world.

Brazil legend Pelé, whose captivating skill and athleticism ensured he was universally regarded as one of football's greatest players, has died.

João Saldanha, the coach who helped shape that 1970 side, once said: “Ask me who is the best right-back in Brazil, and I’ll say Pelé. In 1,363 games, he scored 1,281 goals, at the time of his retirement in 1977 more than twice as many as his nearest challenger. Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on 23 October 1940, Pelé began his professional career at 15 and made his international debut a year later. After reports he was receiving end-of-life care, Pelé said he felt “strong, with a lot of hope” in a social media post on 3 December. Social media posts from his daughter Kely Nascimento showed that family members had gathered at the hospital to spend Christmas with him. Pelé, who had a colon tumour removed in 2021, was readmitted to Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo in November amid deteriorating health.

Pele, the legendary Brazilian footballer who rose from barefoot poverty to become one of the greatest and best-known athletes in modern history, ...

Brazil's football federation said: "Pele was much more than the greatest sportsman of all time ... "The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten," he wrote on Twitter. "God gave me this ability for one reason: To make people happy," he said in a 2013 interview. As a player, souvenir-seeking fans often rushed the field following games and tore off his shorts, socks and even underwear. Yet even in unguarded moments among friends, he rarely complained. He also had difficulty walking unaided since an unsuccessful hip operation in 2012.

Superlatives from some of soccer's greats and others about Pele, who has died in Brazil at age 82:...

And to play like Pele is to play like God." -- Benfica goalkeeper Costa Pereira after 5-2 loss to Santos. "Pele was the most complete player I've ever seen. I was taller, had a better impulse. He was above that." "The greatest player in history was Di Stefano. "This debate about the player of the century is absurd. He had an extraordinary perception of the game." "The best player ever? -- Johan Cruyff, the late Dutch star and standout manager who won the Ballon d'Or three times. -- Italy's Tarcisio Burgnich, after playing against Pele in the 1970 World Cup final. ---

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known the world over as Pele and as “King Pele” or just “The King” in his native Brazil, has died.

He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance, I might add.” “The flag of Brazil is Pele,” said Ricardo Trade, the chief executive officer of Brazil’s local organising committee for the 2014 World Cup. Retired Brazilian star player Zico, who only on Wednesday, attended a celebrity game in Brazil wearing a “Eternal Pele” T-shirt, said: “This debate about the player of the century is absurd. FIFA named them joint winners of the award. “To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man in full,” the late Nelson Mandela once said. “Rest in peace”.

Neymar and Lionel Messi are among many of the modern game's greatest players to react to the passing of Brazil legend Pele.

Rest in peace, King Pele." "I'd say before Pele, football was just a sport. He turned football into art, into entertainment.

PELE (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) October 23, 1940 - December 29, 2022. As a soon-to-be 18-year-old and just months from starting my newspaper cadetship, ...

Among the many accolades and awards Pele received, he was named Athlete of the Century by the IOC. But it was on the greatest stage of a World Cup where the King was seen at his influential best, starting with the finals in Sweden in 1958 when he arrived under an injury cloud. The Brazilian was coaxed out of his self-imposed exile for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Pele was a marked man during the finals in England in 1966. Ever the football ambassador, Pele was complimentary of the standard of world football when I asked him to compare it to his days. He also had a two-season stint with the New York Cosmos in the fledgling Major League Soccer in the United States, playing 64 times and scoring 35 goals. After impressing in trials, Pele signed as a professional with the club in June 1956 and three months later made his senior debut at just 15, scoring in a 7-1 win. As phenomenal a footballer as he was on the field, or off it, there were no airs and graces. Born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, Pele was the elder of two siblings. Domestic leagues, trophies and European Cups would have filled his cabinet and there is little doubt that, financially, he would have been worth a King’s ransom – fitting for a player nicknamed The King. The occasion was one of the few times I allowed the fanboy inside me to take over from my journalistic instincts as I had brought along a photo of Pele in action. The setting was unusual to say the least.

Pele played in Australia once during his career, when his superstar club team took on the Socceroos in 1972. It was an action-packed 72 hours.

“The bird that laid the golden eggs was about to fly the coop,” Pelé wrote in his autobiography, “and they were really going to make him play, make him bank some money for the club … There were many reasons why he was regarded as the best in the world. When he heard Pelé was seriously ill recently, the 87-year-old wore a Santos FC shirt for the entire week to honour him. “But Pelé always was impeccable in everything he did. Fans flocked to see Pelé (who got 10 per cent cut of the fee) and folklore says a civil war in Nigeria was even stopped for two days so people could attend a game featuring Pelé. There was certainly no repeat of the tactic used by Sheffield Wednesday’s Tommy Craig, who asked the referee to tell him when there was 10 minutes to go in a similar game in England, and then stuck like glue to Pelé on the field to ensure he’d be the one next to him at the end. Pelé visited Australia several times in retirement, and was always complimentary about the nation’s football. In an 18-month period we toured South America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Asia and Australia … “The suits were very keen to cash in.” Pelé’s feats in steering Brazil to World Cup victories in 1958, 1962 and 1970 were world-famous, but so too was the reputation of his club team, Santos FC. All the boys were, they wanted the challenge of playing against Santos and Pelé, and of course they had a lot of other great players as well,” Corry said. Even with the Wallabies playing France next door at the SCG at exactly the same time, a crowd of 32,750 grabbed their chance to see Pelé - the world’s greatest player - in the flesh.

Pele will be famous for 15 centuries. The Brazilian soccer star said Andy Warhol had once told him...

He was banned from the draw for the 1994 World Cup, attending it as a pundit for TV Globo. Argentina's Diego Maradona kissed his head in front of the cameras. For decades, Pele's meeting and greeting leaders around the world landed great results for him and his allies. "We knew a lot of things that were going on in the country." He criticized Ricardo Teixeira, then head of the Brazilian soccer confederation and son-in-law of then-FIFA President Joao Havelange. Pele and every other Brazil player received a Volkswagen from an ally of the dictator upon arrival from Mexico. I would have wanted the same." "He is key for Black people's pride in Brazil, but never wanted to be a flag-bearer." Brazil's and Pele's third World Cup title came when Medici was torturing adversaries, had closed congress and had put a gag on the nation's top court. The former footballer, 20 years older than Meneghel, had to ask her father's permission to date. "If it was a meeting with Queen Elizabeth, Pope John Paul II, Bono or just a kid he met on the street, everyone treated him with reverence. For most Brazilians, Pele was a cultural and social phenomenon.

'Nobody was expecting it': When 17yo Pele silenced doubters and burst onto the global stage.

One of the strengths in my life and in my football was my improvisation, to change at the last second.” He tested the players and pronounced Pele “too infantile”. “It was a spur-of-the moment reaction, quick thinking. The ‘58 World Cup was a dream. Football’s king had been crowned. [Bold 2023 predictions: Ange secures dream PL move; Ronaldo in big $308m dilemma](https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/football-news-2022-23-football-predictions-for-2023-womens-world-cup-lionel-messi-cristiano-ronaldo-premier-league-sam-kerr-champions-league-latest-updates/news-story/f9cd93e031249aecae7214e3aef9137b) [Mooy magic! I was a kid. I remember some reporters saying: ‘how can they take a 17-year-old kid to the World Cup finals,” Pele recalled in an interview with FIFA. In the 55th minute, Pele scored the third with a memorable flourish. Pele made history in the 66th minute of the quarter-final scoring the only goal against Wales to become, at 17 years and 239 days, the youngest scorer in a World Cup. Pele hit the last three goals as Brazil beat France 5-2 in the semi-finals, pouncing on two loose balls in the goalmouth for a pair of well-taken poacher’s goals and completing his hat-trick with a stinging volley. In the first three minutes, Pele and Garrincha hit the woodwork and Vava scored.

The Brazilian great's club will host a 24-hour wake before his coffin is carried through the streets of town, but a who's who of the football world is ...

I saw Pele give a show," said Lula, the president-elect of Brazil. "Pelé had everything a player should have. The greatest of all time." "Before Pelé, "10" was just a number. He made people dream and continued to do that with generations and generations of lovers of our sport. Rest in peace." Roberto Rivellino, a teammate in the 1970 World Cup-winning team, said "your place is on God's side. "I had the privilege that younger Brazilians didn't have: I saw Pelé play, live, at Pacaembu and Morumbi. "The affection he has always shown for me was reciprocal in every moment we shared, even at distance. "Like all legends, the King seemed immortal. The king of football — one and only. I'd say before Pelé, football was just a sport.

Tributes continue for the football legend who could 'capture a room's attention without saying a word'.

“It’s an aura. “That’s a lot of words, but you know what they didn’t mention? “It was like wow, that’s Pelé and he is the player of the century.” “It was people like Pelé that made the No.10 a very, very important player in a football team.” “The more vision that comes on the Internet, the more you got to smile and go ‘wow’,” Wade said on Wade said his greatest memory of Pelé was the way he played football and the creative talent he possessed.

When FIFA declared Pele and Diego Maradona jointly the players of the 20th century, and effectively the best of all time, they sidestepped but did not ...

He also suffered a cocaine addiction. Maradona played for six teams, was sent off at the 1982 World Cup, scored with his hand against England in the 1986 tournament, was banned in Spain for fighting on the pitch, and was sent home in disgrace from the 1994 World Cup after failing a drugs test. Maradona, known as “D10S” (a word play with the number 10 and God in Spanish) played in a free role, more the playmaker, and his career statistics reflect that: 345 goals in 692 matches. Maradona, not picked in the squad that won the World Cup at home in 1978 and sent off in a tournament-ending 3-1 loss to Brazil in Spain in 1982, shot to global fame in 1986 for the right and wrong reasons. Pele was injured in the second match as Brazil won the 1962 World Cup but claimed a third title, and sealed his international reputation, in 1970 as his magical side beat Italy in the Mexico City final. AFP Sport looks at who is the best between the magical Brazilian, the controversial Maradona, who passed away in November 2020 at the age of 60, and a second Argentine, the twinkling Messi who is still playing.

The Brazilian star makes the front pages of newspapers around the world on Friday, as they mourn a legend of the game.

Scotland’s Daily Record calls it the “Death of a legend”. The paper writes that the “world hails ‘divine’ genius who made football beautiful”. One of Brazil’s main paper’s, O Globo, has printed an unprecedented four editions, with different covers marking different points in Pelé’s career.

He faced the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore, but Brazil legend Pelé said Australian Ray Richards (R) was the best defender he ever faced. (Supplied.).

"He meant so much, even to the bandidos. "This is the excitement, the pride and honour, that still exists for any person who got to meet Pelé, to touch him. "They [SCG Museum] rang me today and said that they want to put it out for the cricket Test so everybody can see and take photos of it. I regard him as the greatest sportsman of all time. "He told me he arrived in Sao Paulo, him and his camera crew. Because I'm always proud when I'm wearing the green and gold." It's part of our history and I think it should stay here." "When it came out through the newspaper, I was surprised and amazed. And it was largely thanks to Ray Richards, the then-pride of Marconi, who was tasked with marking the Brazilian legend out of the match that day. I was putting myself in match situations and how I was going to approach it, and I made up my mind that I always wanted to stand off to one side, not mark him directly from behind. "At last the money was paid, we walked into the dressing room and I did not nominate who would mark Pelé until then. Richards did bring it all up when he found out he'd be going head-to-head with the pride of Brazil, but it wasn't from nerves or excitement.

Brazil has started three days of mourning for football icon Pele, a three-time World Cup winner who is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time.

"God gave me this ability for one reason: To make people happy," he said during a 2013 interview with Reuters. As a player, souvenir-seeking fans often rushed the field following games and tore off his shorts, socks and even underwear. Yet even in unguarded moments among friends, he rarely complained. Grown adults broke down crying in his presence with regularity. Pele was named "Athlete of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee, co-"Football Player of the Century" by world football body FIFA, and a "national treasure" by Brazil's government. "Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pele, who peacefully passed away today," it read, adding he had "enchanted the world with his genius in sport, stopped a war, carried out social works all over the world and spread what he most believed to be the cure for all our problems: love."

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was known the world over as Pelé. He was “King Pelé” or just “The King” in his native Brazil which will observe three days of ...

He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance, I might add.” “The flag of Brazil is Pelé,” said Ricardo Trade, the chief executive officer of Brazil’s local organising committee for the 2014 World Cup. Retired Brazilian star player Zico, who only on Wednesday, attended a celebrity game in Brazil wearing a “Eternal Pelé” T-shirt, said: “This debate about the player of the century is absurd. Recent reports in Brazilian media say she cannot leave her bed and is not lucid. FIFA named them joint winners of the award. “Rest in peace”.

Late in the 1970 World Cup final, the Brazilian magician seemingly passed the ball to no-one. He could see what others couldn't.

Returns for the Round of 16 in February 2023, with all matches streaming ad-free, live and on demand. Jairzinho cushioned the pass perfectly with his right foot, then stepped over the ball to allow him to face goal. Every touch Jairzinho took was with his right foot despite starting on the left, and without his threat then Pele might never have had his crowning moment. One of the greatest goals in World Cup history started in Brazil’s half with Clodoaldo’s wizardry, dribbling past four tiring Italian defenders. Diego Maradona would wander into areas of the field where it seemed there was little danger, then he was dribbling the ball like it was attached to his left foot, scattering defenders everywhere. In the 1970 decider against Italy, viewers thought the magician had passed the ball to no-one.

Brazil begins first day of mourning the late footballing legend as landmarks are lit up in tribute.

He regularly faced monkey chants on the pitch and was called several racist nicknames. Lots of parallels have been drawn between Pelé and royalty - he was the closest Brazil had. But really, Brazilians will mourn for much longer. The front pages in Brazil were all talking about Pelé on Friday. He turned football into art, into entertainment. Pelé had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer since 2021.

The Brazilian soccer great died on Dec. 29, 2022 at the age of 82. His record as a goal-scorer – and the delight he gave millions – means he will go down as ...

He had numerous children – some the result of affairs – and one of them, a son, Edinho, was [sent to prison](https://www.sportscasting.com/pele-still-believes-in-his-son-despite-his-nearly-13-year-prison-sentence-for-drug-trafficking/) for laundering money made from drug deals. [New York Cosmos](https://www.nycosmos.com/news/2022/12/29/the-new-york-cosmos-mourn-the-loss-of-legendary-pel) in the North American Soccer League. [FIFA’s Player of the 20th century](https://www.yahoo.com/now/pele-immortal-says-world-footballs-204138092.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALU8mP6PmA_ENxks7vIebIo-AEOeXs9IZcEW5wmfrOa0BtFVpf4wsREPOke7on5RCOXZ3kW3iVcFyuns41-ndLTmcPEpu8S0AQuvCGU52NGsLwi7AsEwsVN_-AcpH4dXT29iVLu0eSbwKd_oIEovj0QPP_GOmVIsdUB2b2sydaWh#:%7E:text=Pele%20is%20the%20only%20footballer,world%20football%2C%22%20FIFA%20said.&text=%22The%20man%20in%20question%20is,player%20of%20the%2020th%20century.%22), an award he shared with Maradona. [helped his national team win the World Cup](https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/nobody-was-expecting-it-how-17yo-pele-silenced-doubters-at-wc-as-greatness-loomed/news-story/a0857634d2d28dba92a60315aa4b036b) in Sweden. For all of us, even those with just the slightest interest in football, we will never forget him. At the time, Pelé was Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappé rolled into one – made globally consumable by this new technology. To many fans, the Brazilian will be remembered as [the best to have ever played the game](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9143969/Why-Pele-GREATEST-footballer-time.html). President [Barack Obama have led tributes](https://twitter.com/barackobama/status/1608562412323762176) to him. In addition to his national team achievements, for his club Pelé won six Brazilian league titles and two South American championships. Indeed, he remains the face of a purity in soccer that existed long before big money and global geopolitics infiltrated the game. For others it goes further: He was the symbol of soccer played with passion, gusto and a smile. Long before the feats of modern-day stars Cristiano Ronaldo or Erling Haaland, Pelé blazed a goal-scoring trail that marked him out as being significantly different to other players around him.

The world mourned Friday after learning football icon Pele had passed away. The news hit close to home for Brazil's United Cup team, including Thiago ...

"Pele is the biggest idol we have not only in sports, but in general. “Today unfortunately is a very sad day in Brazil, all over the world. He has a big legacy, maybe the best one in the sport for us. Also he did everything with such energy and such passion that I just try to keep this to myself and tried to follow this path the way he did,” Monteiro said. He played with his heart, he showed love to everybody, so that’s what Team Brazil is going to do not only today but for the rest of the tournament and the rest of the year. Stefani added: “We played today to honour him and to celebrate him because that’s what he did.

Pelé led a Brazil team that made the game a global obsession, and will remain the father of modern football.

He remains, in more ways than one, the father of the modern game. And his 1970 team did create a model of the sport as Technicolor global obsession, a product that would be violently retailed by every governing body over the 50 years that followed, culminating in this winter’s Carbon Wars World Cup. And second there is the issue of his startling brilliance as a player, the only issue really, although even here his reputation seems to have come under assault in recent years. Pelé the footballer helped to define the beauty at its heart. The famous goal in the World Cup final of 1958, where he lifts the ball over Bengt Gustavsson, runs around him and volleys it into the corner can look weirdly easy and cheap in a two-second clip. Pelé was born in a shack in Minas Gerais. A world champion for the third time that summer, Pelé had already become the thing he would remain for the rest of his life: the Pelé identity, the Pelé industrial complex, Big Pelé. This has been a theme of the last few years. The first is that Pelé was not inevitable. We hear about Pelé as tool of the establishment. Two decades later Pelé could be seen leaping out of a giant birthday cake (he was 50 now) before retiring to a bespoke Pelé plinth to watch a globally televised Pelé tribute match. Perhaps the news of Pelé’s death on Thursday night after a long illness might offer a little clarity now, a chance to find the hard edges once again.

Brazil has been mourning the death of one of its brightest stars, soccer legend Pele, with fans and friends paying their respects to the sports icon who ...

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Tributes have continued to pour in for Pele as football comes to terms with the death of the Brazil great at the age of 82.

"The King gave us a new Brazil and we can only thank him for his legacy." Former Brazil striker Ronaldo wrote: "The world mourns. He turned football into art, into entertainment," wrote Brazil forward Neymar. I saw Pele give a show," said Lula, the president-elect of Brazil. On the field, Pele had all the technical qualities of a superstar at the highest level. "Before Pele, football was just a sport.

Pele helped to "grab the hearts and minds" of football in the United States during his time with the New York Cosmos, according to the club's former COO.

"Before Pele came to the Cosmos soccer in this country was a very small immigrant sport. As an American going to Cuba I grew up in a time where you couldn't do that. "I was privileged enough to spend some time with him around the world. He realised his specialty was in what responsibilities came with that. [Those] playing at Bayern Munich or Manchester United or wherever in the world, they were paying attention to it. Where once there had been baseball diamonds now there were also soccer pitches," a statement from the Cosmos read.