Pele
(Edson Arantes do Nascimento
23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022)
I never saw him play live, in person or on TV, but for a long time after I was introduced to football he was the standard by which all footballers were measured. I’m writing, of course, of The King – Pele. I’m not going to go through his history in this blog post. Pele’s life story is well documented and easily accessible. I’m merely going to express what he meant to me, as he did to the majority of football-loving fans, young and old, around the world.
When I first heard about Pele, he was already playing for the New York Cosmos, the star-studded marquee team of the former NASL (North American Soccer League). I did get to watch the Cosmos play live on a vacation to the United States in 1982. My brother and I went while my sister and parents went to see a Broadway or Off-Broadway play. I think they went to see The Fantasticks.Around the same time, the movie Escape to Victory (released in some outlets as Victory) came out. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and a bunch of footballers (Ossie Ardilles, Russell Osman, John Wark, Sir Bobby Moore, to name a few) playing prisoners of war during World War II. The movie was about their exploits playing a match against the German team and planning their escape with the help of the French resistance. Pele played one of the POWs. I recall his character being from Trinidad.
While the movie is obviously scripted and choreographed, it’s evident that Pele was artistry in motion. Watching news reel footage of his career in various stages, you can see how his levels of brilliance, creativity, grace, and beauty never waned. They just became more amazing as he got older and became the legend that he is. I recently saw a post on Facebook showing clips of Pele doing all the amazing things that today’s stars do. The clip was called something like ‘Pele did it first’ and, while I admire Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and others for what they’ve done in their careers and what they do on the pitch, for me, Pele will always be the best. The only player to have won the World Cup three times, he set the standard. He was the best. To use today’s parlance, Pele is the goat. To paraphrase Neymar, who tweeted after Pele’s passing, football was just a sport before Pele. Pele turned it into art and entertainment. Due to Pele’s magnificence, the number 10 shirt became something to covet and something to fear. If you were given the number 10 to wear, it meant you were different, special, and big things were expected of you. Pele is to football what Muhammad Ali is to boxing and Bruce Lee to martial arts. In my opinion, as a form of tribute, it would be fitting to acknowledge the impact Pele had on football if for the remainder of the current football season around the world all players wore black armbands and there were a moment of silence before every match.
As I grew into football, as a fan (I support Arsenal and Hamburger SV), player (I played during my school days for Island School (Hong Kong) and in a local grass roots league organised by some of my schoolmates), and coach (Hanover Park HS Boys Junior Varsity, Passaic County Community College Men, Solomon Schechter Day School Boys and Girls Varsity), I learnt of other legendary players (such as Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, The Charlton brothers, George Best) who elevated football. Eventually rising stars became the talk of the media, claiming Pele’s mantle as the ‘best ever.’ There were Zico and Diego Maradona, who I was fortunate to see live in Hong Kong when he was still playing for Boca Juniors. Around the same time, there was Michel Platini wowing football fans with his skill and cool demeanour. Then came the likes of George Weah, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho. A little after came Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, both many consider are the best to ever play the beautiful game. Crossing with their careers came Neymar and Mbappe, already a star at twenty-four years of age and sure to lead the next generation. Mbappe is a two-time World Cup finalist (winner in 2018 and runner-up in 2022) and has already surpassed many of Pele’s World Cup exploits.
All these players and all players around the world, all fans of every generation owe Pele a giant thank you. He may not have been the reason we got into football but I’m sure he’s a reason – if not THE reason – we love it. He inspired the players who came after him. So, too, were the ones he played with and against. If for nothing else, Pele motivated them to be better.
More than football, although some would argue what else is there other than football, Pele brought the world together with his infectious good nature, professing words of peace and love, and brandishing his trademark smile. He was an ambassador. He promoted the game he loved and now we love it too. He promoted humanity and love and peace through that game and you can see, in video clips and interviews, the innocence and unadulterated joy on his face when he talks about these things. It’s the same feelings one gets when watching him play and the elation on his face when he scores. He had the talent on the pitch. He had the humility on and off the pitch. He had the love for all mankind and he made us love him in return. He had longevity, sharing all of this and himself with us for eighty years. In all of these, he will be missed.
Thank you, Pele. God bless you and your family. Rest in peace. On behalf of those of us you’ve left behind, I promise that we will do our best to be worthy of being the custodians of your beautiful game.
