Brazilian soccer star Pele died in Sao Paulo at age 82 after a long illness, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Pele was being treated for cancer. He was hospitalized about a month ago due to complications. Relatives have repeatedly made it clear that Pele’s condition was worsening.
Pele is the only footballer who managed to become world champion three times as a player: in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
Edson Arantis do Nascimento, better known as Pele, was born October 23, 1940 in the small Brazilian town of Tres Corazones. His father Dondinho was also a professional footballer, but due to a serious injury was forced to end his career, so he began to teach soccer to his son.
At the age of seven Pele got into a local team, which at some point was coached by a former Brazilian national team player Valdemar de Brito. He arranged for the young soccer player to try out for the Brazilian club Santos, for which Pele ended up playing for almost his entire career.
Pele made his debut for the Santos main team at the age of 15, scoring in his first match. Ten months after signing a contract with a professional club, the 16-year-old player was called up to the national team.
Pele’s first World Cup in 1958 was brilliant: he scored a hat-trick in the semi-final match against France and a double in the final against Sweden, thereby leading his country to victory. Pele became world champion at 17, the youngest champion in the tournament’s history. Four years later, he helped the national team win the title again, making Brazil one of only two countries in the world to win the tournament twice in a row.
After his successful performances at national team level, the player attracted interest from world giants such as Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United, but the country declared the player a “national treasure in Brazil” to prevent the young talent from leaving the country.
At the 1966 championship Pele had not been able to give his best due to injuries, but the 1970 championship, which was the fourth in his career, was a triumph. The 26-year-old Pele again led his team to victory, becoming the only player in history to win the World Cup three times. Also at the tournament, Pele scored the first goal in the final match against Mexico, which was Brazil’s 100th goal at the World Cups.
Pele spent 18 years at Santos. With the club Pele won six Brazilian titles, 10 times the Paulista Liga champion, twice took the Libertadores Cup, four times won the Rio São Paulo tournament, as well as winning the Intercontinental Cup twice and once won the Intercontinental Super Cup. To complete his career the already legendary player went to the American club New York Cosmos, where he spent two years and again became champion, but already of the North American Football League.
Officially, for his entire career Pele played 812 games in which he scored 757 goals, but these statistics do not include friendly and exhibition matches. If you count all the games in which Pele took part, it turns out that the footballer played more than 1.3 thousand games, in which he scored more than 1.2 thousand goals.
After his soccer career Pele served as UN Environment Ambassador and Brazil’s Sports Minister, as well as being knighted a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was named a UNICEF ambassador.
In 2000 Pele became the best soccer player of the twentieth century, beating Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Alfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona and other great soccer players of the last century in this nomination.
