Pele, the legendary footballer, passed away in a hospital in Sao Paulo Thursday, December 29, after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 82. "Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace," wrote his daughter Kely Nascimento on Instagram. Football is ideal for romantic treatment – its unpredictability, aesthetic and ability to command collective emotion make it the beloved game it is today. It makes the incurious pay attention. It makes the devoted laugh and cry, often in the same game. And while football has had stalwarts across eras, there is perhaps no one who captured the very essence of the game's beauty as a certain footballer from Sao Paulo, Brazil. For many, Pele was the greatest there ever was and the greatest there ever will be. He was a symbol of what football is supposed to be like – the human embodiment of the term 'o jogo bonito' (the beautiful game), who also helped popularise the descriptor for the sport. Pele, a footballer way ahead of his time A part of Pele’s mythology is the fact that he played really long back, in a league that was not fully televised. But just like most myths, stories of Pele’s greatness have been passed down through generations, both through spoken words and expressed emotions. From the footage that one can put together, one sees a man out of place, ahead of time. The things that Pele was doing in the muddy fields of Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s would be unthinkable for most, even now. He had sublime control, unparalleled imagination and typical Brazilian flair. Pele did everything your favourite player did, first 🐐pic.twitter.com/fYbsYftmvQ — SPORTbible (@sportbible) December 4, 2022 Everything your favourite footballer does today, Pele probably did in his day. He pioneered and perfected a whole gamut of skills and techniques that are to date used at the highest levels of the game. Pele, the world beater In the storied history of football, there has only been one person to have won the World Cup three times, and Pele did so in four attempts. In the 14 World Cup games he played in, he failed to score or assist only twice – the two games in which he got injured. He scored 12 goals and eight assists, to have a total of 20 goal contributions in 14 games. For context, Lionel Messi has 21 goal contributions in 26 matches, 12 more than Pele. If Pele had played as many games as Messi and maintained his production, he would have had more than 37(!) goal contributions. I have scored 1283 goals in my life, — Pelé (@Pele) September 25, 2015 Pele’s achievements at a domestic level are even more phenomenal. While he himself claimed to have scored 1283 goals in 1363 games, official records put his goal tally at 757 goals in 812 games. Either way, Pele averaged nearly a goal a game for his career. If strikers today have a couple of seasons like that, they are venerated. Pele did it for his entire career, wearing heavy leather boots, on swamp-like fields, against violent opposition. Pele, the King of hearts Neither statistics nor skills tell the full story of Pele. The everlasting appeal of The King of Football lies in the fact that Pele commanded people’s hearts. From the streets of Sao Paulo to the gullies of Kolkata, Pele is worshipped. He stood for everything that is good about football – its artistry, its passion, its constant search for excellence. 1970 World Cup and O Jogo Bonito Individual virtuosity and team organisation have been in a perennial tussle in football. As time has passed, the game has become more systemised, with defined roles, automatisms, and scientific analysis of shape and structure. Yet, for many, the rawest, purest form of the game is still defined by individual mastery and imagination. Pele stood for the unbridled artistry of football. And the World Cup 1970 was his masterpiece. In the first World Cup to be broadcast in colour, Pele and his Brazil enthralled audiences to eventual victory. Each dribble, pass and outrageous goal was an act of defiance against the regimentation of modern football that was beginning to take root at the time. Brazil danced its way to the final and then faced the Italian machine, known for its no-nonsense defence and highly systemised play. It was a clash not just of two football teams, but of two cultures, two styles of play and two philosophies. Brazil won, in the process scoring one of the greatest goals of all time. A total of seven outfield players from Brazil passed the ball until captain Carlos Alberto hammered it into the corner of the Italian goal off a nonchalant pass from Pele. Football was indeed beautiful, and Pele was the ultimate epitome of its beauty. He could have easily shot the ball himself and had he scored, it would have been a great goal nonetheless. But that final pass, that subverted expectations, that no one but Pele could see and play, was what made a great goal legendary. It was what made it beautiful. Pele’s demise gives us an opportunity to experience some of his best moments. Long live football, the beautiful game, and rest in peace Pele, the human embodiment of its beauty.
