Soccer Great Pelé Dies at 82
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Soccer legend Pelé has died at 82.
Pelé, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on October 23, 1940 in Brazil, won three World Cup tournaments with Brazil and 10 league titles with Santos, his club team, as well as the 1977 North American Soccer League championship with the New York Cosmos.
“Having come out of retirement at 34, he spent three seasons with the Cosmos on a crusade to popularize soccer in the United States,” wrote the New York Times. “Before his final game, in October 1977 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Pelé took the microphone on a podium at the center of the field, his father and Muhammad Ali beside him, and exhorted a crowd of more than 75,000.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Say with me three times now,” he declared, “for the kids: Love! Love! Love!”
The NYT continues:
"In his 21-year career, Pelé scored 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches, including 77 goals for the Brazilian national team.
Many of those goals became legendary, but Pelé’s influence on the sport went well beyond scoring. He helped create and promote what he later called 'o jogo bonito' — the beautiful game — a style that valued clever ball control, inventive pinpoint passing and a voracious appetite for attacking. Pelé not only played it better than anyone; he also championed it around the world."
PHOTO: John Mathew Smith/CC 2.0
