The first global icon of soccer, Pelé, a Brazilian hero who won three World Cups, has died suddenly at age 82.

“Everything that we are, is thanks to you,” his daughter Kely Nascimento wrote in a post on Instagram, under an image of family members holding Pele’s hands. “We love you infinitely. Rest in peace.”

Late in November, Pelé was hospitalized in So Paulo with complications from colon cancer and a respiratory infection. His health had got worse than his malignancy got worse, the hospital reported last week. According to a statement from Albert Einstein Hospital, he passed away on Thursday as a result of multiple organ failure brought on by the advancement of colon cancer.

Soccer has been associated with Pelé for more than 60 years. The only player in history to participate in all four World Cups and win three of them, he left a lasting legacy that went far beyond his collection of awards and exceptional goal-scoring stats.

“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint,” Pelé famously said.

Tributes have been pouring in for the soccer legend. Pelé’s first club, Santos FC, responded to the news on Twitter with the words “eternal” shared next to an image of a crown.

Brazilian footballer Neymar said Pelé “changed everything.” In a post on Instagram, he wrote: “He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to black people and especially: He gave visibility to Brazil. Football and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King!” he added.

Portuguese star forward Cristiano Ronaldo sent his condolences to Brazil in a post on Instagram, saying “a mere “goodbye” to the eternal King Pelé will never be enough to express the pain that currently engulfs the entire football world.”

Kylian Mbappé of Paris Saint-Germain said of Pelé’s death: “The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten.”

Former English soccer player Geoff Hurst wrote on Twitter of his memories of Pelé, calling the late star “without doubt the best footballer I ever played against (with Bobby Moore being the best footballer I ever played alongside). For me Pele remains the greatest of all time and I was proud to be on the the pitch with him. RIP Pele and thank you.”

Brazil’s incoming President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took to Twitter to pay his respects to Pelé, saying “few Brazilians took the name of our country as far as he did.”

“As different from Portuguese as the language was, foreigners from the four corners of the planet soon found a way to pronounce the magic word: ‘Pelé,’” Lula added.

Pelé’s wake will be held at Vila Belmiro, the headquarters of the Santos FC in São Paulo state, a spokesperson told CNN. The time and date of the event has yet to be announced.

dazzling ability
Before his family moved to Bauru in So Paulo, Pelé was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in 1940 in Três Coraçes, an interior city some 155 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Even the football player himself is unsure of where the nickname Pelé came from. He once said that it probably began as a result of schoolmates making fun of him for mispronouncing another player’s nickname, Bilé, in the British publication The Guardian. Whatever its beginning, the name stuck.

As a child, his first taste of soccer involved playing barefoot with socks and rags rolled up into a ball – a humble beginning that would grow into a long and fruitful career.

But when he first took up the game, his ambitions were modest.

“My dad was a good football player, he scored a lot of goals,” Pelé told CNN in 2015. “His name was Dondinho; I wanted to be like him.

“He was famous in Brazil, in Minas Gerais. He was my role model. I always wanted to be like him, but what happened, to this day, only God can explain.”

Before turning 16, Pelé left home and started training with Santos as a teenager. He soon scored his first goal for the team. Over the course of his 638 club appearances, he would score 619 goals, but he is best known for his achievements while wearing Brazil’s recognizable yellow jersey.

When Pelé made his World Cup debut at the age of 17 in 1958, the world first caught a peek of his incredible talent. He scored Brazil’s lone goal in the nation’s triumph over Wales in the quarterfinals. He then scored a hat-trick against France in the semifinals, two goals against host nation Sweden in the championship game.

“When Pelé scored the fifth goal in that final, I have to be honest and say I felt like applauding,” said Sweden’s Sigvard Parling.

For Pelé, the standout memory from the tournament was putting his country on the sporting map.

“When we won the World Cup, everybody knew about Brazil,” he told CNN’s Don Riddell in 2016. “I think this was the most important thing I gave to my country because we were well known after that World Cup.”

Another World Cup victory came in 1962, although an injury sidelined Pelé for the tournament’s later stages. Further injuries hampered his next campaign in 1966 as Brazil exited the competition after the group stage, but redemption came in 1970.

“Pelé was saying that we were going to win, and if Pelé was saying that, then we were going to win the World Cup,” Brazil’s co-captain Carlos Alberto said about the tournament.

That team – featuring the likes of Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostão, Rivellino, and, of course, Pelé – is regarded as one of the greatest ever assembled.

11 World Cup greats — as you’ve never seen them before

In the final – a 4-1 victory against Italy – Brazil scored arguably the most famous World Cup goal of all time, a sweeping, length-of-the-pitch move involving nine of the team’s 10 outfield players.

It ended with Pelé teeing up Alberto, who drilled the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Brazil’s mantra of jogo bonito (the beautiful game) has never been better encapsulated.

Pelé, who had considered retiring before the 1970 World Cup, scored a goal of his own in the final and a total of four over the course of the tournament.

“Before the match, I told myself that Pelé was just flesh and bones like the rest of us,” Italian defender Tarcisio Burgnich said after his side’s defeat in the final. “Later, I realized I’d been wrong.”

The tournament capped Pelé’s World Cup career but not his time in the spotlight. In 1975, he signed a $1.67-million-a-year contract in the United States with the New York Cosmos.

One of the best players

Before he officially retired from football in 1977, Pele helped the Cosmos win the North American Soccer League championship with his outgoing personality and exceptional dribbling skills, which were a trademark of his game.

Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer were added to the league’s roster, but it wouldn’t continue, dissolving in 1984. But Pelé’s influence persisted throughout the world.

He continued to be well-known thanks to sponsorships and his vocal political advocacy for Brazil’s underprivileged. He worked for many years as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, advocating for peace and aid for young children who are at risk.

Much of Pelé’s later life was characterized by ongoing health issues. He used a walker to help him get around, which he was seen dismissively throwing around in a documentary that was released last year. In September 2021, he had surgery to remove a tumor from his right colon.

Pelé’s cancer treatment continued over the past year. He was hospitalized in Sao Paulo in November as the 2022 World Cup was being played in Qatar, prompting an outpouring of support from the global soccer community and beyond.

Debate will inevitably rage about whether Pelé is the greatest player of all time – whether it is possible to compare Pelé’s achievements to those of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, who have rewritten soccer’s record books over the past 15 years, or to Diego Maradona, the late Argentinian star who captivated the footballing world in the 1980s and 90s.

In 2000, FIFA jointly named Maradona and Pelé as Player of the Century, but to some, the outright winner of the award should have been obvious.

“This debate about the player of the century is absurd,” said Zico, who represented Brazil in the decade after Pelé’s retirement. “There’s only one possible answer: Pelé. He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance, I might add.”

It is unknown exactly how many goals Pelé scored throughout his career, and his Guinness World Records total has under criticism because many of them were scored in unofficial contests.

He complimented Portugal’s Ronaldo in March 2021 for surpassing his “record of goals in official matches,” which stood at 767.

However, there is little question that Pelé was and always will be football’s first international icon.

He said to the online magazine The Talks, “If I pass away one day, I am satisfied since I tried to do my best.” “Because my sport is the most popular in the world, I was able to do so much with it.”

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Source: JoyPrimegh.Com