Arguably the world’s greatest football player, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, best known as 'Pele', passed away early on Friday, December 30. He was 82, and had been battling cancer for some time. He had a colon tumour removed in September 2021, and it was not specified whether it had spread to other organs. He was recently under "elevated care" related to kidney and cardiac dysfunction, reports state.
Labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, football's world governing body, named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee in 1999 and included in TIME Magazine's list of 100 most important people of the 20th century, Pele was in 2000 voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century award. But for millions of fans of the game around the globe, Pele was the first person who made football 'Jogo Bonito', "the beautiful game".
He was the original No. 10 of world football, a number now sported by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbapp. A player with sublime skills, great presence on the field, immaculate positional sense, and a devastatingly powerful shot, Pele was thus far the only footballer to have lifted the World Cup three times — in 1958, 1962 and 1970. In his nearly-two-decade-long career, Pele scored a record-setting 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which included friendlies. He is also the youngest-ever scorer for Brazil — and holds the record still — and at 17, was the youngest to play in a World Cup final.
He was declared the Natural Treasure by Brazil's federal government in the 1960s to prevent him from being taken to Europe to join football clubs there. Pele made his debut for Santos, the only club he represented in an official league, at the age of 16 in 1956. He played for Santos from 1956 till 1974, scoring 648 goals in 659 appearances. Pele enhanced Santos's recognition around the world, touring various countries with the team and drawing huge crowds. From 1975 to 1977, Pele played for the New York Cosmos, making the American club a household name. Pele played 56 matches for Cosmos in three years, scoring 31 goals.
'The King' made his first impact on the international stage at the 1958 World Cup as a 17-year-old, scoring some impressive goals, including two in the 5-2 win against Sweden in the final as he helped Brazil win their first World Cup. At the international level, he scored 77 goals in 92 matches.
He has won dozens of awards and set a string of records in world football — he was, for instance, the youngest player to play in the World Cup and lift it (he was aged 17 years 244 days) and also the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup, besides winning honours beyond the football field — he was given an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
He was also the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 1994. In 1995, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso appointed Pele to the position of Extraordinary Minister for Sport, a position he utilised to propose legislation for reducing corruption in Brazilian football, which is now known as the Pele Law.
A multi-faceted personality, Pele published many books, including his autobiographies, and even starred in movies. He also acted in Brazilian movies, television serials and documentaries. It is this universal appeal as a humble, loveable and well-respected human being that resulted in many football players, including France's World Cup hero Kylian Mbappe, sending him their wishes as Pele fought for his life in a hospital in Sao Paulo.