Pele died of cancer at the age of 82, leaving the globe in mourning.
Pele, the legendary Brazilian footballer, died of cancer on Thursday in Sao Paulo, his daughter confirmed on Instagram.
Pele had a tumor removed from his colon in September 2021 and has been receiving regular therapy since then.
With 77 goals in 92 games, Pele is Brazil’s all-time leading scorer. Pele, nicknamed the Black Pearl, won one Ballon d’Or, three World Cups, and scored 1,283 goals in his career.
As a 17-year-old, he exploded onto the international stage in the 1958 World Cup, scoring six times in all, including twice in the final as Brazil won the trophy for the first time. Brazil won the World Cup again in 1962, but injuries limited Pele to only a game and a half in both the 1962 and 1966 editions, with the savage hacking of group opponent Portugal in 1966 forcing him to leave the tournament on a stretcher and vowing never to play in another World Cup again.
Thankfully, he surrendered in time for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, and he lit up television screens across the world in yellow in the first color World Cup coverage. Brazil entered the competition with one of its best lineups ever and won their third title unbeaten.
Pele scored four goals along the road, and he famously laid on the last pass in a spellbinding move that finished with Carlos Alberto’s sweeping finish for the tournament’s final goal. Pele’s name is also associated with three of the greatest misses in soccer history: the lob from his own half against Czechoslovakia, the header that elicited the’save of the century’ from England goalkeeper Gordon Banks, and the dummy-cum-run-around that fooled Uruguay goalkeeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz in the semifinals, only for the great man’s shot to roll past the wrong side of the post. Pele stepped out from the game in 1977.
Before the World Cup began, Pele had addressed the Brazil team, saying: “Today we start writing a new story. We will be more than 200 million hearts beating as one, throbbing with each achievement of our ‘Selecao’. We must appreciate and play each match as if it were a final. Yes, playing wonderfully is crucial, but so is leaving all on the field. I’m sending you these photos to motivate you… I am sending you all of my positive energy. I’m confident that we’ll have a happy ending. God’s blessings on you. Bring this trophy home with you.”
Brazil was ousted in the quarterfinals by Croatia in a penalty shootout.
Pele and Argentine great Diego Maradona, who never met on the field, frequently competed for the title of best footballer in history.
Pele and Maradona were selected FIFA’s best players of the twentieth century in 2000, the Brazilian by an expert jury and the Argentine by a popular vote of fans. Maradona died of cardiac arrest in 2020, at the age of 60.
