The only player three times world champion, crowned at the age of 17, author of 1,281 goals, Pelé died on December 29, 2022 in Brazil, eleven days after the World Cup in Qatar. He was 82 years old. Even more than Diego Maradona, who died on November 25, 2020 – and whose last years have started the legend – the Brazilian leaves in the history of football an imprint like no other. The Englishman Bobby Charlton said of him: “Sometimes I feel like football was invented for this magical player. »
“The greatest in the history of football”
Always admired, never criticized, Pelé was unanimous among his glorious successors. “He was the footballer who exceeded the limits of logic” (Johan Cruyff). “The most complete player I have ever seen” (Franz Beckenbauer). “The greatest in the history of football” (Cristiano Ronaldo).
During the 1958 World Cup, the planet ignited for this kid who scored five goals in two games: in the semi-final against France of Kopa and Fontaine, then in the final against Sweden. Pelé breathes new life into a sport somewhat encysted in the physical and metronomic patterns of the great teams of the time – Uruguay, Hungary, Germany.
color tv man
He imposes a new style, the famous “ginga”, a mixture of dribbling, audacity and spectacular gestures, like his famous bicycles (overturned air).
Throughout his immense career, Pelé will have accompanied the rise of football in mondiovision, first in black and white in 1958, then in color in 1970, when he became world champion for the third time. “Pelé has entered homes around the world. Even those who weren’t interested in football got to know him.”, explains the historian Paul Dietschy (1). Television viewers who saw his birth live in Sweden are rare, but millions of them attended the Brazilian’s recital during the Mexican World Cup in 1970. Whose famous blind pass to Carlos Alberto, for the fourth goal in the final against Italy.
Brazilian midfielder Pelé (left) dribbles past Italian defender Tarcisio Burgnich during the World Cup final on June 21, 1970 in Mexico City. /STAFF/AFP
Athletic but airy despite his 1.73m, dribbler and powerful shooter, irresistible with his right foot and very skilful with his left, excellent without the ball to lurk behind the backs of opponents whom he left disarmed. These multiple qualities will inspire this comment to Italian defender Tarcisio Burgnich after the 1970 defeat: “I said to myself before the match, he is in the flesh, just like anyone, but I was wrong”.
The staging of the 1000e goal
The biopic dedicated to him in 2016 (Pelé, birth of a legend) depicts him practicing juggling for hours on end with, as a ball… a mango, under the gaze of his father, himself a former amateur footballer who had to give up his sport to feed his three children. Many of his biographies – there are more than a thousand of them – begin with the oath he would have made to his father as a child about the World Cup: “One day I will win it for Brazil, I promise you. »
Among the other famous episodes entered into legend, this twenty-minute lap of honor, right in the middle of a match, on November 19, 1969, to celebrate his thousandth goal.
A minister of sports anxious to do well
In 1971, Pelé put an end to his international career and continued with a club in the United States. He helped popularize “soccer” with the New York Cosmos. After his retirement in 1977, the greatest footballer in the world spent the second part of his life playing sales reps for various brands. Without ever undermining the myth. He spared no effort to defend various humanitarian causes (in particular Unicef). Or to clean up the organization of football in his country, undermined by corruption.
In 1995, he entered the government. Sports Minister for four years, he boasted of having “freed all Brazilian footballers from slavery”. Allusion to the law that bears his name. Voted in 1998, it transposes to Brazil the European judgment “Bosman” which authorizes a player to sign in any club, whatever his nationality.. One more episode in the legend of King Pelé, a symbol as much as an actor in the birth of football without borders.
————–
Three-time World Cup winner
Two clubs in his career. Edson Arantes do Nascimento was 15 when he joined Brazilian club Santos in 1956, located in the state of Sao Paulo. He started in the first team the following year. He will remain at Santos until 1975, the year of his departure for the American club New York Cosmos, where he will play for three seasons.
Number of matches and goals. Pelé played 831 official matches and scored 767 goals. If we count the friendlies, he would have scored 1,281 goals in 1,363 games.
With the Brazil team. Pelé participated in four World Cups and won three: in Sweden in 1958, in Chile in 1962 and then in Mexico in 1970. During the 1966 edition in England, Brazil was eliminated in the first round. In total, the player scored 12 goals in 14 games and scored at least 1 goal in every World Cup.
.