The renowned Brazilian soccer player Pele, who rose from barefoot squalor to become one of the finest and most well-known athletes in contemporary history, passed away on Thursday at the age of 82.
Pele passed away at 3:27 PM, according to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital, where he was receiving medical attention “due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous medical condition.”
The death of the only player to win the World Cup three times was announced on his Instagram account.
“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.”
Pele had been having chemotherapy after a tumour in his colon was removed in September 2021.
He had also had trouble walking without assistance since a failed hip surgery in 2012. On the eve of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020, his son Edinho stated that Pele’s failing physical condition had made him despondent.
Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, joined Santos in 1956 and transformed the modest coastal club into one of the most recognisable names in football.
He won two Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League, and two Intercontinental Cups, an annual tournament between the best clubs in Europe and South America.
He won three World Cups, the first as a 17-year-old in Sweden in 1958, the second in Chile four years later despite missing most of the tournament due to injury, and the third in Mexico in 1970, when he captained one of the finest teams ever to play the game.
He resigned from Santos in 1974, but a year later made an unexpected comeback by accepting a lucrative contract with the nascent North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos.
During his illustrious 21-year career, he scored 1,283 goals.
Pele, on the other hand, transcended soccer like no other player before or after, and he became one of the twentieth century’s first global icons.
With his charming smile and aw-shucks humility that endeared him to thousands of fans, he was more well-known than many Hollywood stars, popes, or presidents – many, if not most, of whom he met throughout a six-decade career as a player and corporate pitchman.
He attributed his one-of-a-kind blend of talent, creative ingenuity, and technical prowess to a childhood spent playing pick-up games in small-town Brazil, often with grapefruit or wadded-up rags because his family couldn’t buy a proper ball.
Pele has been designated “Athlete of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee, “Football Player of the Century” by FIFA, and a “national treasure” by the Brazilian government.
His celebrity could be overwhelming at times. Adults frequently burst into tears in his presence. As a player, souvenir-seeking fans frequently swarmed the field after games, ripping off his shorts, socks, and even undergarments.
His property in Brazil was less than a mile from a beach, but he avoided going there for nearly two decades due to crowds.
Even in casual settings with friends, he rarely complained. He believed that his talent was a heavenly gift, and he spoke movingly about how soccer allowed him to travel the world, offer joy to cancer patients and survivors of wars and starvation, and provide for a family that often did not know where their next meal would come from while he was growing up.
“God gave me this ability for one reason: To make people happy,” he said during a 2013 interview with the international news agency, Reuters. “No matter what I did, I tried not to forget that.” (REUTERS)
