FIFA pays a farewell to PELE, one of Footballs all-time great.

Born on 23rd October, 1940, “Edson Arantes do Nascimento” in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, to father the Fluminense footballer Dondinho (born João Ramos do Nascimento) and mother Celeste Arantes (1922–2024), but globally acclaimed by his nickname “PELE”.

Dondinho and Celeste named their first son Edson after Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in history. His family nicknamed him ‘Dico’, but he received the moniker ‘Pele’ in school due to his mispronunciation of Brazilian goalkeeper, “Bile”.

In 1950, Dondinho and his friends, while were transfixed to a radio, were euphoric, as Brazil had just gone 1-0 up in a decider against Uruguay, and they only needed to draw, at the Maracana, to win their first World Cup. A nine-year-old Pele therefore left home for a kickabout with friends.

“When I got back, I was dumbfounded”, Pele had recalled long back. “It was the first time I saw my father cry. He was devastated. I promised him, ‘One day I will win you the World Cup’”. Pele, who had previously wanted to become a pilot, was now determined to become a footballer.

It was Waldemar de Brito, the former Brazil striker, who was coaching Bauru which is now a defunct state minnows, discovered a boy wonder on their books. He took Pele for a trial at Santos, boldly proclaiming his protégé would become “the best player in the world”.

Coach Lula heard this, chuckled, but upon seeing Pele during his first training session immediately handed him his first-team debut, which Pele scored on as a 15-year-old in 1956. Over the next 18 years the forward propelled Santos to 25 major titles, including two Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup crowns a piece.

With Soccer Clubs namely Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester United and Real Madrid having all tried to sign Pele, the Brazilian government, under President Janio Quadros, declared him an ‘official national treasure’ to prohibit him moving overseas.

In 1959, in one calendar year, Pele extraordinarily scored 127 goals for Santos. Furthermore, while still a teenager, he had scored 25 goals in merely 20 caps for Brazil National Team. No other player in history has reached the quarter-century for international goals.

Pele has immortalised the No.10 jersey across the globe, but only by chance. Brazil forgot to submit their squad numbers to FIFA for Sweden 1958, so they got chosen randomly. Virtually all made no positional sense, with Goalkeeper Gilmar and Centre Back Zozimo were allocated the No.3 and No.9 respectively, but Pele, who began as a reserve, somehow got the number, which he has duly made the most famous in football.

Diego Maradona of Argentina; Michell Platini of France, and of course at present Lionnel Messi of Argentina has bolstered the glory of this No.10 Jersey.

Pele & Garrincha: Together for Brazil, Pele and Garrincha played six World Cup matches and several Copa America games, faced Argentina multiple times and took on European heavyweights such as England, France, Portugal, Soviet Union, Spain and West Germany. They incredibly never lost once.

Pele and Garrincha became the synonymity of ‘cooperative model’.

It was Pele who had stopped a war; Between one and two million people died during Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970. Astonishingly, a 48-hour ceasefire was called between the Nigerian government and the secessionist state of Biafra in 1969 so they could watch Pele and Santos draw 2-2 with the Nigerian Super Eagles, with ‘The King’ receiving incessant applause and a standing ovation from the home fans.

Merely two and a half months prior to the Mexico 1970 kick off, Joao Saldanha, who masterminded Brazil’s perfect qualification campaign, unthinkably dropped Pele for a friendly against Chile. A few hours later he was sacked.

CBF officials hurriedly raced to a Botafogo training session, unannounced, and told Mario Zagallo to get in the car because he was the new Seleção coach. Exacting the trust his former team-mate had in him, Pele persuaded Zagallo and team doctor Lidio Toledo to include Tostao, who had suffered a career-threatening eye injury, to the tournament.

World Cup records:

• Pele is the youngest scorer, youngest hat-trick scorer, youngest final player and youngest final scorer in World Cup history.
• Gunnar Gren, who competed against Brazil in the 1958 decider, made his Sweden debut before Pele was born. Never has such an age gap – 20 years – existed between opponents in a World Cup final.

• Pele became the second player to score in four World Cups in 1970. He was pipped to the record by merely three minutes by West Germany’s Uwe Seeler.

• Vava, Pele, Paul Breitner, Zinedine Zidane and Kylian Mbappe are the only players to have scored in two World Cup finals.

• Pele registered 06 assists at Mexico 1970 – a record for one World Cup. Four players managed 05: Robert Gadocha at Germany 1974; Pierre Littbarski at Spain 1982; Diego Maradona at Mexico 1986; Thomas Hassler at USA 1994.

Pele also recorded an unprecedented 03 assist in deciders: 01 against Sweden in 1958 and 02 against Italy in 1970.

The King of New York –

Soccer barely existed in New York in the early 1970s. Celebrities did. A who’s who of the world’s biggest.

But when the New York Cosmos sensationally brought Pele out of retirement in 1975, soccer’s popularity exploded, the Cosmos became the most glamorous club on the planet and ‘The King’ became the VIP of VIPs in NYC. “Absolutely everybody wanted to shake his hand, to get a photo with him”, said Mick Jagger of Pele’s presence at Studio 54. “Saying you had partied with Pele was the biggest badge of honour going”.

Pele’s presence drew mind-blowing crowds to matches, seduced Muhammad Ali, Peter Frampton, Jagger, Elton John, Diane Keaton, Henry Kissinger, Robert Redford, Rod Stewart and Barbra Streisand into being Cosmos fans, coaxed Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia to the ‘Big Apple’, and inspired the club to the Soccer Bowl in his swan song.

In 1981, Pele had played a lead role in the John Huston directed hit film, Escape to Victory, which also starred Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Bobby Moore, about Allied prisoners of war playing an exhibition football match against the Germans.

Celebrity and honours –

• In 1970, Pele was named the most famous person on the planet above John Lennon, Pope Paul VI, Paul McCartney, Muhammad Ali, Paul Newman, Queen Elizabeth II, Neil Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne and Barbra Streisand.

• A few years later, the brand Pele was named the globe’s second-biggest according to a survey – astonishingly bigger than oil and gas supermajors, banks, automotive manufacturers, airlines, telecommunications titans and everything other than Coca-Cola.

• Pele, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson were the only sportspeople to make the much-publicised 1999 Time magazine compilation of The Most Important People of the Century.

• In 1999, BBC had rated Muhammad Ali as the sportsperson of the millennium, followed by Pele in the 02nd position, and Indian Master Sunil Gavaskar in the 03rd position.

• That same year, Pele was one of nine sportspeople bestowed by the International Olympic Committee with the ‘Athlete of the Century’ award, despite, amazingly, having never partaken in the Olympic Games. Others included Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Nadia Comaneci, three of the most triumphant athletes in Olympic history, Steffi Graf and Michael Jordan.

• Pele was the inaugural recipient of the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

The quotes –

“This debate about the player of the century is absurd. There’s only one possible answer: Pele. He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance I might add”, quoted Zico (Brazilian Footballer)

“For Brazilians, speaking about Pele is speaking about an entity, speaking about something far superior to everyone”, reiterated Ronaldo (Brazilian Footballer)

“Pele revolutionised football. Pele stopped a war. Pele united countries, united families. There was no race problem, language problem. I was born in 1970. In 2002, I became a world champion. I was captain. I had the honour of receiving the World Cup trophy from no less than whom? Pele! Man! If I say any more, I’ll cry. It’s really emotional!”, Cafu (Brazilian Footballer)

“To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man in full”, said Nelson Mandela

“Malcolm Allison: “How do you spell Pele?”

Pat Crerand: “Easy: G-O-D”, Television commentators during Mexico 1970.

Team Maverick