Brazilian football has several characters. However, none of them had the role of Edson Arantes do Nascimento. The importance of Pelé is such that it is possible to say that, from him, the world changed the way of seeing the players and the selection of Brazil. Today (29), at the age of 82, Pelé died at the Albert Einstein Hospital, in the south of São Paulo, as a result of multiple organ failure. The career of the man who would come to be known as the King of Football began in a very ordinary way. Born on October 23, 1940, in the Minas Gerais town of Três Corações, Pelé came from a poor family, who worked hard to educate their children. Still in childhood, one fact seemed to define his relationship with football. Upon seeing his father, former player José Ramos do Nascimento, Dondinho, cry after the defeat of the Brazilian team in the 1950 World Cup final, little Edson promised that he would win the country’s first World Cup. Before fulfilling this promise, Pelé would take his first steps in the sport in the city of Bauru, São Paulo, where his family moved during his childhood. There, he defended several amateur field and indoor soccer teams, until, when he turned 15, he was taken to do a test at Santos. Approved, he was hired in June 1956 and started to defend the Vila Belmiro team. At Santos, he started scoring goals, which guaranteed him his first call-up to the Brazilian national team in 1957 to participate in the Copa Roca, a competition in which he scored his first goal and began a journey of conquests. King since he was young Pelé’s quality was such that the idea that he was the king of football emerged even before he won an expression title for the national team. Still young, at the age of 17, months before the 1958 World Cup, the playwright Nelson Rodrigues referred to the player in a chronicle about the game between América and Santos. “What we call royalty is, above all, a state of mind. And Pelé has a considerable advantage over the other players: – that of feeling like a king, from head to toe. When he catches the ball and dribbles past an opponent, it’s like someone shooing away an ignorant and lousy commoner.” Pelé, by the National Archives/Correio da Manhã The definitive crowning came with winning the World Cup titles. “In 1957, Brazilian football was at a low point, with the defeat to the Uruguayan national team in 1950, the only regular participation in the 1954 World Cup, the poor results during a tour of Europe in 1956 and the poor performance in the South American Championship of 1957. And Pelé appears, aged 17”, recalls researcher Rodrigo Saturnino. “With Pelé and Garrincha, the team never lost. There were three world titles in four Cups. Pelé was mainly responsible for this performance. The selection’s identification with the Brazilian people reached its peak. Pelé became the face of a successful Brazil, the most recognized Brazilian in history, all over the world”, says Saturnino, researcher at the Football Literature and Memory Group (Memofut). Sociologist and professor at the Faculty of Social Communication at the University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj) Ronaldo Helal says that Pelé was fundamental for the selection to end the story that he had a stray complex (Nelson Rodrigues’s expression) that would prevent him from to win titles. “In 1958, Brazil won the World Cup, and Pelé was outstanding, becoming the king of football at the age of 17.” Height in Mexico Pelé – Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke//Rights reserved Among all the conquests, one occupies a special place in the history of soccer, that of the 1970 World Cup, in Mexico. It was in this competition that Pelé showed his full potential as a player. “In 1970 he was fundamental, he had a unique Cup, brilliant from start to finish, and put Brazil at the top of world football”, says Helal. Clodoaldo, one of Pelé’s companions in that campaign, shares this opinion. “It was Pelé’s best moment in the Brazilian national team. I saw him in 1970 as never before, physically, technically and psychologically prepared. He was flying. It was the moment when he reached the peak of his career.” Top scorer Pelé – REUTERS/Ian Hodgso//Rights reserved However, Pelé’s success is not just down to the national team. It was for Santos that he scored most of his 1281 goals (in 1363 games), which made him the best scorer in the history of world football. The kind of feat that made the public treat him in a special way. “Pelé was the only player, as far as I know, who made a good move against a team, or scored a goal, and the opposing crowd applauded, sometimes standing up”, says Helal. And one of these goals mobilized the public’s attention in a special way, the number one thousand, achieved on November 19, 1969 in a 2-1 victory for Santos over Vasco at the Maracanã stadium. Pelé was only 29 years old when he reached this milestone. Secret formula Pelé – REUTERS/Dylan Martínez//All rights reserved So many achievements lead to the question, how did an ordinary boy, born in Minas, become the king of soccer? “The highlight in the history of football comes from his talent and his technique, for being the only one to do exceptionally well, on the field, everything that a football player can do. Pick an attribute, and Pelé was one of the best”, says Saturnino. Former player Pepe, teammate of Santos and the selection of the eternal shirt 10, argues that a player with these characteristics appears only once in history. “In current football, great players have appeared. However, like Pelé, he does not appear. Complete, right leg, left leg, jump, kick, header, run, goals, greatest scorer in world football of all time. I think Mr. Dondinho and Mrs. Celeste tore up the formula and there is no longer a player like Pelé”. *All the statements that make up this article were given in interviews given on the occasion of Pelé’s 80th birthday celebration.
Agência Brasil
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