Pele

This past week Pele died. Edson Arantes de Nascimento was born in Brazil in 1940. He grew up shining shoes to help support his family and buy his meager soccer gear, a game he excelled in from adolescence. He would go on to become its greatest player and ambassador, and maybe the man most responsible for popularizing soccer in the United States. 

I saw Pele play as a kid. My father took me. He was in Atlanta with his team Santos FC in an exhibition match against the Atlanta Chiefs, our newly formed professional team. Santos won 6-2 and Pele scored a hat trick of three goals, one coming on his famous bicycle kick, a spinning backwards upside down shot he invented and then brought into the mainstream. It was an exhilarating sight to my young soccer playing eyes. There was no one like Pele. He was one of a kind.

Pele began his professional career by signing with Santos at the age of fifteen and was the only player in history to win three World Cups, playing for his home country Brazil. His first came in 1958 when he was only seventeen. Brazil beat Sweden in the finals with Pele scoring twice to clinch the World Championship. Six goals in four games at the age of seventeen. Against the best players in the world.

In the still segregated world of 1958 soccer, Pele became its first black superstar. The first black superstar in any sport, period. His father had told him at a young age that, “on the pitch, everyone is equal.” He never forgot that, and made it a priority to practice and promote the same ethic off the field. With his winning smile, humility, and engaging personality, he became the finest ambassador soccer possessed.

He won two more World Cups with Brazil, in 1962 and 1970, then spent three more years playing for Santos FC before retiring in 1974. He was only thirty three. Though he received lucrative offers from many Western European teams, what brought him out of retirement was an opportunity to come to the United States and play for the New York Cosmos in the fledgling startup NASL, North American Soccer League. 

Pele was the one who finally brought widespread popularity to soccer in the United States. The Cosmos drew large crowds wherever they played all over America. Everyone wanted to see Pele play. As one of his teammates said,

“He always lifted us up, and gave us what it takes to be giants like him.”

On October 1, 1977 Pele played his last game to a sell out crowd at Giants Stadium between the Cosmos and his old Brazilian team Santos. He played a half with each team, and scored the winning goal for the Cosmos, the last official goal of his career. In the second half it began to rain. A Brazilian newspaper carried the headline. 

“Even the Sky was Crying.”

RIP to a great man and the crown jewel of football. Pele.