Pelé, the soccer legend who inspired a nation on and off the field, died on Thursday after battling colon cancer. He was 82.
Pelé had a tumor removed in September 2021 and has been undergoing chemotherapy since.
Brazilian football icon Pele cheers during the unveiling of the Hublot Countdown Clock designed by the late architect Oscar Niemeyer, at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. The event marks the start of the one-year countdown to the opening 2014 World Cup game in Brazil.
( AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
A member of three Brazilian World Cup champion teams, Pelé was widely regarded as the greatest soccer player off all time and often was given credit for the term “the beautiful game” used to describe the sport
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Edson Arantes do Nascimiento, whose father was a struggling soccer player, was born in Tres Coracoes, Brazil, and grew up in poverty in Bauru in the state of Sao Paulo. He was named after the American investor Thomas Edison – though his parents decided to remove the “I” and call him Edson. He was nicknamed “Dico” by his family.
However, it was the nickname Pelé that the world came to know.
Its origin is unclear, with Pelé himself saying that he didn’t know how it started. However, urban legend says that his school friends gave it to him after he mispronounced the name of his favorite soccer player, Vasco da Gama goalkeeper, Bile.
FILE – In this June 21, 1970 file photo, Brazil’s Pele holds up his team’s Jules Rimet Trophy, or the FIFA World Cup Trophy, following Brazil’s 4-1 victory over Italy at the World Cup at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. On Oct. 23, 2020, the three-time World Cup winner Pelé turns 80 without a proper celebration amid the COVID-19 pandemic as he quarantines in his mansion in the beachfront city of Guarujá, where he has lived since the start of the pandemic.
(AP Photo, File)
He told Fox News Latino in 2016 – while promoting “Pele: Birth of a Legend,” a biopic of his early life – that he never liked the nickname when he was a young boy, but eventually started to love it as fans around the world began chanting it more and more.
“I could not change it,” Pelé said at the time.
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Pelé began playing soccer as a young child and usually played with a sock stuffed with newspaper and tied with a string or with a grapefruit. He played on several amateur teams, even leading the local Bauru Athletic Club juniors team to two Sao Paulo state youth championships.
At the age of 15, his youth coach Waldemar de Brito, a former member of the Brazilian national soccer team, convinced Pelé’s parents to let the budding phenomenon try out for the Santos professional club.
FILE – In this Dec. 1, 2017 file photo, Brazilian soccer legend Pele attends the 2018 soccer World Cup draw in the Kremlin in Moscow. On his social media accounts, Pele said on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021 that an apparent tumor on the right side of his colon had been removed in an operation. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
The teenager was signed and immediately began making an impact. He scored the first professional goal of his career before he turned 16 and led the Brazilian soccer league in goals scored in his first full season.
The world was officially introduced to the phenom at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Displaying remarkable speed, athleticism and field vision, the 17-year-old Pelé scored three goals in a 5-2 semifinal win over France before netting two more goals in the 5-2 championship win over the host country.
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Then-Brazilian President Janio Quadros went on to declare the young superstar a national treasure, which made it harder legally for him to play in another country. Regardless, Pelé went on to play lucrative exhibition matches with teams around the world.
Footballing great Pele gestures to throw a cardboard football at a promotional press conference for Hong Kong banks new World Cup Visa Card, 24 February in Hong Kong. Brazil is likely to bid to host the 2006 World Cup, against the likes of Germany, England and South Africa, according to the Brazilian sports legend, who is in Hong Kong on business and to attend a coaching school.
(ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Pelé helped Brazil to two more World Cup trophies – at the 1962 World Cup in Chile and 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Brazil crashed out in the first round of the 1966 World Cup in England, having only played three matches.
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Throughout the years, the legend of Pelé continued to grow – so much so, that in the late 1960s, the two factions in the Nigerian Civil War reportedly agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire so they could watch Pele play in an exhibition game in Lagos.
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan summarized Pelé’s stardom when the soccer star visited him at the White House and he said: “My name is Ronald Reagan, I’m the president of the United States of America. But you don’t need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pelé is.”
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Pelé went on to play for the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League after a brief retirement from the sport.
Legendary Soccer player Pele attends the Fifth Avenue Flagship Opening at Hublot Boutique on April 19, 2016 in New York City.
(Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic)
He played his final game in an exhibition between New York and Santos in October 1977, competing for both sides. He retired with a total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 games.
Pelé held the record for youngest player to play in a World Cup final, youngest goal scorer and youngest hat-trick scorer in World Cup history.
In 1978, Pelé was awarded the International Peace Award for his work with UNICEF, and in 1999, FIFA named him “Co-Player of the Century” along with Argentine star Diego Maradona.
He is survived by his third wife, Marcia Aoki, six children from various relationships, and several grandchildren.
