Pelé died at the age of 82, one of his daughters, Kely Nascimento, announced on Thursday. “We love you to infinity, rest in peace” she wrote on Instagram, from the Albert-Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo where he was admitted a month ago.
Was he the best footballer of all time? The debate seems impossible to arbitrate, as it is difficult to compare the eras: and in particular his own, of which essentially extracts of matches remain on YouTube, with the modern era saturated with live broadcasts.
But the institutions had decided before the turn of the millennium: in December 1999, the IOC had designated Pelé as athlete of the century, after consultation with National Olympic Committees around the world. For the FIFA jury, in 2000, he was the player of the 20th century, but the public, also consulted by the body on the Internet, had placed Diego Maradona, 20 years his junior, at the top of the votes.
The two geniuses never stopped sending each other sometimes violent spades through the media for decades, before the great reconciliation in the mid-2010s. When the Argentinian died in November 2020, the Brazilian had honored the memory of his former rival with these words: “One day, I hope we can play ball together in the sky. ” Here we are.
Always very well surrounded, Pelé has never worn the Seleçao alone in the World Cup, as Maradona almost did during his world title with the Albiceleste in Mexico, in 1986. But it is in the most prestigious of competitions that the King wrote his incomparable legend. The only player to display three planetary titles, he is also the youngest scorer and winner of the event.
“This World Cup, I will win it for you”
On June 29, 1958 in Solna, he was exactly 17 years and 249 days old when he raised the so “vintage” Jules-Rimet Cup to the skies, after a one-way final against Sweden, the host country (5- 2). The kid from Santos has just planted a double, including one following a wonderful blow from the sombrero, after his decisive goal against Wales in the quarter (1-0) and his hat-trick in front of France from Kopa and Fontaine in the half (5 -2).
Thanks to this prodigious teenager, Brazil finally holds its first World Cup. Eight years later the trauma of the “Maracanãço”, when Uruguay had plunged an entire country into disarray by dominating the Seleção at home, in front of 200,000 dumbfounded spectators. Pelé is still only 9 years old but according to his hagiographers, he then made a promise to his inconsolable father: “Don’t cry, dad. This World Cup, I will win it for you. »
Former striker passed by Atlético Mineiro and Fluminense, João Ramos do Nascimento says Dondinho will be a father more than fulfilled. Four years after the Scandinavian coronation, his son, always accompanied by Vava, Garrincha and Zagallo (today the last survivor of the Swedish epic), does it again in Chile. Author of a superb winning slalom between four Mexicans in the first match (2-0), his World Cup however stops in the second against the Czechs, through injury. He will let his inspired replacement Amarildo finish the job.
The 1970 World Cup magnified by color television
In England in 1966, the adventure ended in the first round and was marked by unpunished attacks by the Bulgarian Zhechev and the Portuguese Morais on the King, at a time when the referees only started to flinch in the event of a tackle in the glottis. A disgusted time, Pelé took a resounding revenge in Mexico in 1970, during what is always agreed to call “the most beautiful of the World Cups”under the leadership of his former teammate Zagallo, who became coach.
In this World Cup magnified by a first color television broadcast, his victorious header in the final against Italy (4-1), after an incredible relaxation, marks perhaps less memories than his delicious decisive pass for his captain. Carlos Alberto, or his sublime failures: the header saved by England goalkeeper Gordon Banks in the first round – the famous remark: “I scored a goal, but Banks saved it” – and the big bridge without touching the ball on the Uruguayan goalkeeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz in the semi-final, concluded with a strike on the side.
Pelé claims to have scored 1,283 goals
The international retirement comes very quickly then, at not even 31 years old, on July 18, 1971 against Yugoslavia at the Maracanã (2-2), in front of a tearful crowd. Impossible to dream of a more beautiful setting for the last of his 92 selections, studded with 77 goals.
Pelé and his goals, let’s talk about it. On his Instagram account followed by more than 13 million people, he proudly proclaimed himself “Leading Goal Scorer of All Time”, the Pichichi of Pichichis, and claimed 1,283 achievements. Other sources suggest a range of 757 to 767, not counting the many goals scored in friendly matches.
If we stick to the count of “O Rei”, the 1,000 mark was reached at the Maracanã (definitely) on November 19, 1969 for a domestic clash between Santos and Vasco de Gama. Penalty provoked and transformed by Pelé, before invasion of the field by fans and journalists, then lap of honor and finally, resumption of the game won by Santos (2-1) after 20 minutes of interruption. A match as a shortcut to the cult that the Brazilian people have for football and their most gifted child, sent to Earth to break the Auriverde curse in the World Cup.
Pelé ends his career at the New York Cosmos from 1975 to 1977. He was then the figurehead, before Franz Beckenbauer, of a not very conclusive attempt to establish “soccer” in the United States.
The rest of his life, spent under the label of “citizen of the world” awarded by the UN just after his retirement in October 1977, was divided between humanitarian commitment and a brief political career. He held the post of Minister of Sports in Brazil from 1994 to 1998, in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
But Pelé’s main job remains to embody Pelé, through his numerous and lucrative advertising partnerships. At the end of the 1980s, the Française des Jeux thus broke its piggy bank to make the idol the figurehead of its brand new sports lottery, with posters and clip still imprinted in the retinas of people who have been able to see them.
Sometimes criticized for not taking a strong enough position, unlike (still) the very active Maradona, the Brazilian has never been accused of false modesty: “Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pelé and Coca-Cola,” he once said. Only the last remains of this world today.