(CNN Spanish) — Skin left a mark on football that perhaps no other player can repeat.
The Brazilian is for many the best footballer of all time. At the very least, he is the only one in history to have won three World Cups.
But besides that, his kindness and his almost impeccable image off the pitch make him a historical soccer icon.
“This is a great responsibility. I feel very comfortable although something I can’t figure out is why God gave me this gift. This has been a gift from God, and I try to be the best person I can be. I try to be respectful, I try to prepare myself and always be in good health. But the most important thing is to respect people.”
Pelé knew how to reach a privileged place through football, but the truth is that he first had to learn to living in the lowest sector of Brazilian society.
(Crédito: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Football idol at an early age
He was born in 1940 in a precarious area of the state of Minas Gerais. There he discovered soccer at a very early age, and his progression was so fast, that debuted with the Santos first team when he was only 15 years old.
A year later, he had already put on the shirt of the Brazilian team.
Pelé was still a teenager when he first left his name in World Cup history. That was in sweden 1958.
There, O Rei broke all records. He became the first 17-year-old footballer to win a world cup, following beating the Swedish host team, scoring 2 goals for them in the tournament final. That was the first world title in his showcases.
Four years later, Pelé also joined Brazil, which would repeat its successes in the World Cup in Chile ’62. Second World Cup, and second title for 10 of the canarinha.
Although the tournament had a more bittersweet taste than the previous one. It is that the crack suffered a sprain in the second game of the tournament, once morest Czechoslovakia, and he did not play once more in that World Cup.
Despite this, that year 1962 ended up being round for Pelé. The crack of Santos led his team to win the Brazilian tournament, the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental.
Those are three feats that the star and Santos were able to repeat the following year.
Pelé was already considered the best of the time.
Pelé, also an icon off the field
But the power of his image was not only reflected on the field, but also outside of it.
In 1967, O Rei and Santos played a friendly in Nigeria that stopped the civil war that was bleeding the African country for two days. The memory of that, for Pelé, was indelible.
“The people there loved soccer so much that they called off the war to watch Santos play in Africa. This was fantastic. It was something indescribable.”
It’s just that watching Pelé play was surprising. His speed, his agility and his scoring ability dazzled an audience that, until then, had not seen an equal footballer on a pitch.
His scoring nose was such that when he had not yet turned 30, the star achieved what no one in history has been able to repeat officially: mark his 1000th goal. On this occasion, once morest Vasco da Gama.
The moment forced the referee of that match to stop the match.
Pele with his mother Celeste in March 1965. (AP Photo)
“A friend of mine, who is a comedian in Brazil, told me: ‘Listen, God stopped the game because he wanted everyone to see your thousandth goal. That’s why he wanted it to be a penalty kick.’
With a thousand goals in his pocket, the star had an even bigger achievement to achieve the following year: becoming the first footballer to win three World Cups.
This happened in Mexico 1970, where Brazil won the cup following beating Italy, without losing or drawing a single game. Pelé was chosen as the best player of the tournament, and also kept a nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life: “O Rei”.
“It would be very difficult for another Pelé to emerge”
With almost no records left to break, Pelé retired from soccer in 1977, following playing the last seasons of his career with the New York Cosmos.
At 36, O Rei finally hung up the boots with which he scored a total of 1,281 goals.
Despite his retirement, the brazilian maintained his relevancenot only in the world of football, but also in international politics.
Pelé worked as an ambassador for the United Nations, in defense of ecology. He also participated in FIFA events on countless occasions, and was even made a knight of honor by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1997.
Pelé was an icon in the world and a national treasure for Brazil. That is why his death has been able to stop a country of more than 200 million inhabitants.
As he himself has said between laughs, there will never be another Pelé.
“It would be very difficult for another Pelé to emerge. It’s just that my mother and father have already closed the factory.”
Goodbye to your majesty, goodbye to O Rei.
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