For more than 60 years, the name Pelé has been synonymous with soccer. He played in four World Cups and is the only player in history to win three of them, but his legacy stretched beyond soccer as he became a global Phenom.
Pelé, the Brazilian soccer legend, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the only player to win three World Cups and became the sport’s first global super star has died at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer.
Pelé was admitted to a hospital in São Paulo in late November for a respiratory infection and for complications related to colon cancer.
The hospital said his health had worsened as his cancer progressed. He died on Thursday from multiple organ failure due to the progression of colon cancer, according to a statement from Albert Einstein Hospital.
“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.”
“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint,” Pelé famously said.
Another Brazilian soccer star ‘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.
The Brazilian Soccer legend Pelé was able to watch the 2022 World Cup in his final days … and even penned a congratulations post on his social media page to Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe after the epic Argentina vs. France final.
He had also written an emotional note to Neymar after a huge performance for Brazil earlier in the famed tournament.
Pelé joined Brazil’s national team when he was just 16 years old and won his first-ever World Cup at age 17 in 1958. Pele was on his way to becoming a global superstar.
He went on to lead Brazil to two more titles in the event, winning it all in 1962 and 1970. He’s widely regarded as one of the best goal scorers ever — with Cristiano Ronaldo previously calling him “the greatest player in football history.”
The Ugly side of Soccer:
As Pele’s fame grew, European giants came calling. The Italian team approached Pelé and Djalma Santos with seven-figure offers. Santos accepted one from Inter Milan.
Pelé allegedly signed a contract with the Italian club. Then the teams chairman, Angelo Moratti, received a phone call.
“On the other side of the phone,” Moratti’s son would later recall, “there was a man very worried for his safety.”
It was Santos’ chairman. News of Pelé’s impending transfer had reached the public. “As soon as it was heard in Brazil,” Massimo Moratti said, “Brazileans went wild against the leaders.”
They came to the conclusion that the only solution, given Pelé’s importance to Brazil, was to tear up the contract.
The Brazilian government soon declared him a national treasure, and national treasures don’t become exports. Pelé stayed, winning South American titles in 1962 and 1963.
His star power also allowed Santos to tour Europe, sometimes merely for exhibition matches. There were also Intercontinental Cups, newly conceived contests between the South American and European champions.
Throughout the ’60s, though, fame began to wear at him. Pelé began traveling more for commercial engagements than for sport.
It strained his relationship with Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, whom he married in 1966, but eventually divorced in 1982. Pelé later admitted to sleeping with other women while they were a couple, both before and after they were married.
Soccer also began to wear on him. Opponents who couldn’t stop him turned to illegal measures. Crunching tackles. Bruising hip-checks. Thwacks to the shin.
“Football has become ugly,” Pelé said at the time. A fluke injury knocked him out of the 1962 World Cup, which Brazil went on to win without him. It was the brutish tactics, on the other hand, that knocked him and Brazil out in 1966.
He’d entered that World Cup a 25-year-old megastar. He exited in pain, after three games and two losses, with a gold necklace and black towel draped over his bare torso.
He later stared out the window of a team bus, chin in hand, face sullen. Soccer’s joy had been stolen.
In the immediate aftermath of the defeat that sent Brazil home, he told a reporter: “I don’t intend to play in a World Cup again.”
Back on top of the world, at age 29:
Four years later, Pele returned “I was really torn. I didn’t want to play in the ’70 World Cup,” Pelé said in an interview . “I didn’t want to repeat what had happened in [1966]. I wasn’t sure. I was worried.”
But Brazil yearned for him. Fans yearned for him. The country’s fascist government yearned for him, too. The military dictatorship, which began terrorizing Brazilian citizens in 1968, pressured Pelé to return to a team that it used to promote patriotism and nationalism.
Ultimately, though, “I also missed the sport,” “I just wanted to be remembered.” Pelé said.
So he returned, and the sport celebrated, and savored its final glimpses of the king. Brazil rolled through the tournament. Pelé wowed the fans with spectacular goals and eye popping assists.
He’d sometimes doubt his own ability to conjure brilliance out of nowhere. He’d glance at flag-waving Brazilian fans chasing the team’s bus, and think about the millions watching on small TVs and in public squares back home, and get nervous. Before the 1970 World Cup final in Mexico City, his emotions stirred. He prayed.
Then, 18 minutes in, he rose above Italy and headed Brazil into the lead. Late in the second half, when he received the ball at the top of the box, the universe seemed to freeze and hold its breath. Pelé casually turned, fed a pass to a rampaging fullback in stride, and capped Brazil’s 4-1 triumph, the fans went wild!
As the final whistle neared, fans, photographers and Italian players began positioning themselves for the storm.
When the whistle trilled, they sped toward him, and hoisted him onto their shoulders, and carried him around a chaotic Estadio Azteca field.
Everybody privileged enough to witness Pelé’s final global act wanted a piece of the newly crowned three-time world champion, the only one soccer has ever known. Pele was only 29 years old.
Retirement:
Pelé retired from the sport in 1974. He returned a year later, reportedly in need of money. A business deal had backfired and left him $1 million in debt.
The New York Cosmos agreed to pay him a then-whopping $7 million over two-plus years to play soccer, but also to promote the sport in one of its great untapped markets, the U.S.
Pelé did both of those things. Americans flocked to his introductory news conference and to his games. In his first month stateside, 20,000 fans crowded into a 12,500-seat stadium in Boston.
Some of them mobbed Pelé after a goal and accidentally injured him, sending him off in the 79th minute on a stretcher.
Pelé recovered, and two years later led the Cosmos to a North American Soccer League title in his final professional season.
They then sold out Giants Stadium for one last curtain call, a friendly between the Cosmos and Santos. Pelé played a half for each team. During the second, rain began to fall. The following day, a Brazilian newspaper headline proclaimed: “Even The Sky Was Crying.”
Pelé did not, however, disappear from public view. The financial problems that led him to America followed him into retirement.
He cycled through managers and investments, each finding a new route to mistrust or collapse. A construction venture went bust. A sports marketing company descended into scandal.
Pelé, seemingly seeking to recapture lost earnings, began shilling a range of multinational products, including Subway, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Viagra, Nokia, Petrobras, Hublot, Santander, Volkswagen, and his own coffee brand, Café Pelé.
He delved into politics and diplomacy as well. He spent three years in the ’90s as Brazil’s first minister of sport. He worked as an ambassador for UNICEF and the United Nations, advocating on behalf of the environment and against rampant corruption in Brazil.
His missteps outside of soccer also extended to romantic relationships. In the early 1980s, at age 40, as his first marriage officially moved toward divorce, he began dating a 17-year-old model, Xuxa.
Their relationship collapsed after several years when, according to Xuxa, Pelé began cheating on her. Almost a decade later, in 1994, he married Assíria Lemos Seixas, a psychologist and singer, but they divorced in 2008.
In 2016, Pelé wed Marcia Aoki, a Japanese Brazilian entrepreneur. They remained together as his health deteriorated. Multiple hip surgeries left him hobbled and, according to one of his sons, depressed. In recent years, he needed a walker or wheelchair to get around.
Then, in the summer of 2021, doctors found a tumor on his colon. They removed it, but Pelé spent the better part of a month in and out of a São Paulo intensive care unit. He began chemotherapy.
His health further deteriorated earlier this month
And that included non-Brazilians. “Pray for the King,” French superstar Kylian Mbappé tweeted.
Pelé responded on Dec. 8. “I’m happy to see you breaking another one of my records,” he told Mbappé. He lived to see one of soccer’s greatest games, the 2022 World Cup final, a week later.
He died 11 days later, his manager confirmed, with family by his side. Roughly an hour after his passing, a representative sent a brief message from his Twitter account: “Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pelé, who peacefully passed away today. Love, love and love, forever.”
His survivors include Aoki; his sister, Maria Lucia Nascimento; and at least six children: Kely Nascimento, 54, Edson “Edinho” Nascimento, 51, and Jennifer Nascimento, 43, from his first marriage; twins Joshua and Celeste Nascimento, 25, from his second marriage; and Flavia Kurtz, 53, from an extramarital affair.
He is also survived by enduring memories, by millions who savored his greatness, perhaps even by some who, on a radiant summer day 50 years ago, stood on tiptoes for one last glimpse.
Over 140,000 fans pushed into the Estadio Maracana that day for Pelé’s final international game with Brazil. As he paraded around the field, flanked by snapping cameras and worshippers, spellbound by tears, they chanted a simple request: “Stay! Stay!”
And a plane flew overhead, carrying a banner with four simple words: “O VIVA O REI.”
“LONG LIVE THE KING.”
