PHe who comes to me
I lead
The one who went ahead
and follows.
If the target is reached
He will rest
I will get there
Reason
I need to rest too.
These are lines from a poem written by Pele. He has reached his final destination; To rest forever.
Peruvian soccer player Ramon Mifflin once wrote of Pele: “I’ve never seen a man sleep like Pele. Once we were traveling from Brussels to Tokyo. Halfway around the world, he slept for almost twenty-six hours.”
When asked regarding this, Pele said: “There is no better way to be alone than to close your eyes.”
True, we always think of every other footballer in the middle of a crowd, be it Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo, but not Pele, he is alone, like Pico da Neblinha peak in Brazil.
Goalkeeper Shep Messing remembers Pele in his hotel room the day before his last match: He looked a thousand years old. He smiled like an Egyptian sphinx. His hands grew darker once morest the sandalwood bedspread. the hands of a man who made his living with his feet; They were hard and smooth at the same time.
Pele once quipped that if he hadn’t become a footballer, he would have been a factory worker or a shop assistant. He saw no glory in the game of football that these two jobs lacked; Whatever the job, he thought, it was all regarding doing it well.
He worked hard to make up for his shortcomings not only on the field but also in life. He did not have the opportunity to get much education in his youth, but he was not in vain. Even at the height of his fame, he tried to study. and succeeded in obtaining a university degree.
Once upon a time, Pele and his wife Rosa Maria were traveling through Italy. When Pope Paul VI came to know regarding this, he expressed his interest to meet him. Pele worried regarding speaking to the Pope with his limited Italian. But the next day’s Italian newspapers wrote that it was the Pope who was more concerned than Pele. It may be true that the Pope has realized that football is a religion that is bigger and has more followers than the religion he represents.
A member of only the third generation of freed slaves, Pele says of meeting Nelson Mandela: I have met many – popes, presidents, kings, Hollywood stars – but nothing has touched me like this meeting. He asked me: “Here in South Africa there are many races and many languages. In your Brazil, there is wealth and only one language – Portuguese – and yet you are poor? Why are you not united?”
Pele did not have the economics to answer the first question. But to the second question he answered in his mind: There is something that unites us. It had united us ever since we lost the first World Cup final to Uruguay in 1950; Its name is football.
Many have written regarding Pele’s athleticism. But nothing like what Eduardo Galliano wrote. This is how Galliano draws Pele:
At speed, he cuts through opponents like a knife through butter. By the time he stands, his opponents will have lost their sense of direction by falling inside the ravanankota created by those legs. He jumps like climbing a staircase in the sky. And when he takes the free kick, the opposing players, lined up like a wall, will look back, so as not to miss the beautiful sight of the ball going into the net.”
The player, declared a national treasure by the Brazilian government to prevent him from being kidnapped by any other country, has many names: the Italians call him il Re (the King); The French called it Tulipe Noire (Black Tulip); Also known as Perola Negre (black pearl) by Brazilians. Be that as it may, the name that best suits him is football; Because he is synonymous with it.
By the time Pele’s last football match was over, it had started to rain. His teammates carried him around the stadium. As they stood he whispered: “One more time….”
No one needs to shoulder that man; One who has wings of his own does not need them!
Source:
1.My Life and the Beautiful Game by Pele
2. Young Pele: Soccer’s First Star by Lesa Cline Ransome
3. Why Soccer Matters by Pele
4. Soccer in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano
