Thursday’s death of football legend Pelé has expected elicited reactions across the football world.
Pelé was born and raised in the favelas of Tres Coracoes in Minas Gerais, Edson Arantes do Nascimento – he would become known as Pele at school, apparently because of the way he mispronounced the name of his favorite footballer, Bile – grew up in poverty and taught himself how to play football by kicking around a sock stuffed with newspaper.
He made his professional debut for Santos at the age of just 16, Pele was selected to represent Brazil in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden when he was just a year older.
He would stunningly belie his inexperience.
Pelé rose to superstardom by winning the 1958 World Cup, scoring six goals when aged just 17. Two of those goals came in the final against the hosts, Sweden, including one of football’s most iconic strikes, a flick over a defender’s head and volleyed finish.
His incredible career is littered with remarkable achievements. Most notably he is the only player to have won three World Cups, having also triumphed with Brazil in 1962 and 1970. He was also one of the first black global sporting icons.
He helped popularise football across the US when – with three World Cups under his belt – he briefly joined the New York Cosmos.
Pelé played his last game as a professional footballer during his tenure in the United States, in New York’s Giants Stadium on 1 October 1977 – representing Cosmos in one half and his former club, Santos, in the other.
His great rival of the age was Portugal’s legend Eusebio, but when the pair were in opposition in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup, played between the winners of the Copa Libertadores and the European Cup, there was only one winner.
In Brazil, Pelé will also be associated with the white shirt of Santos, for whom he scored 619 goals in 638 appearances which, coupled with his glorious deeds for his country, gave him – in his homeland at least – the undisputed title of the game’s greatest player.
He is credited with scoring a world record 1,281 goals in 1,363 appearances during a 21-year career, including 77 goals in 92 matches for his country.
He is the only player to win the World Cup three times, lifting the trophy in 1958, 1962, and 1970, Pele was named FIFA’s Player of the Century in 2000.
All the greats of the game, past and present, will have looked up to and been inspired by Pelé – the first real global football icon.
The world bids farewell to Brazil football legend, Pelé, Nigerians, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, have also added their words to the long list of farewell messages for the man that had long been described as the greatest footballer of all time.
The Brazil great had been undergoing chemotherapy for a colon tumour that was removed last September and returned to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital on February 13. While in the hospital he contracted a urinary infection and underwent an endoscopy, which left him weak and having difficulty eating and speaking.
Pelé passed away on Thursday at the Albert Einstein Hospital and his daughter, Kely Nascimento, confirmed the news on Instagram, writing, “Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace”.
In a statement signed by the President’s spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, President said: “Pelé is gone but the world will never forget him. RIP.
“May he rest in peace. He led a good life and made a huge contribution to the development of global football in particular and world sport in general.
“He had an enormous generosity of spirit and humility despite his greatness as a footballer and sportsman”.
The Nigeria Football Federation also took to their Twitter handle to celebrate the passing of the football greatest.
“We express our sorrow following the sad passing of football icon and Brazilian great Edson Arantes Do Nascimento ‘Pelé’.
“We mourn his demise with the rest of the football family worldwide and the Brazilian football family in particular. May his soul rest in peace”.
Sylvanus Okpala, who featured for Nigeria at the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations, described the death of Pelé as a colossal inevitable loss to the world of football.
“It’s very unfortunate; I believe every footballer will be mourning him. Of course, he is old, but when you remember his exploits at the 1958 World Club, through club sides, and the 1970 World Cup, he was tremendous.
“I watched Pelé on tape and he had a huge impact on me as a footballer too. He was an all-rounder. Very good with both feet, when you talk about speed, scoring goals, free kicks, controlling the ball and he was very good in the air. He was a complete footballer”, Okpala said.
“It is sad to lose such an icon as Pelé but God giveth and he has the power to take”, former Eagles goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu said.
“It is better to go and rest but he will definitely be missed in the world he was a man who had given his best to football and he lived a fulfilled life”.
Also, veteran Nigerian journalist, Kunle Solaja and a former National President of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Steve Alabi described the legend as the undisputed greatest of all time.
“Everything points to one man, and that man is Pelé. Because in a world where there is a racial inclination, for a white man to acknowledge the greatness of Pelé, it means he was greater than great. He was a successful footballer and managed his success very well beside that, he was an ambassador to many international organizations, even FIFA and United Nations. In every aspect, he towered above the rest. May his soul rest in peace”, Solaja said.
“Were Pelé’s play to be fully captured, the younger generations would have marveled more than they do at his incredible ingenuity bordering on football omniscience. The records do little justice to his out-of-the-world delivery: The only person, man or woman, in the whole history of the game to win three World Cups. The only person, man or woman, in the whole history of the game to ever score over a thousand goals. It is on account of this that I rate Pelé as the King”, wrote on his Facebook page.
