Legend...
Posted on 12/29/2022 11:09:11 AM PST by shadowlands1960
Edson Arantes do Nascimento remembered exactly when he first saw his father weep. It was 1950 and Brazil, appearing in soccer’s World Cup for the first time, had just been beaten by Uruguay.
“My father was crying with a lot of Brazilians,” the man better known as Pelé remembered. “My father used to say, men should be strong. Men doesn’t cry. Then I saw my father cry when Brazil lost the game.
“Then I told him, ‘Father, don’t worry. I’m going to win a World Cup for you.’ … [Six] years later, I was in Sweden with Brazil and Brazil won the World Cup. I was 17 years old. That was a gift from God. I don’t know why I said it, why I promised it to my father.”
Pelé, the Brazilian soccer star who led his country’s national team to that World Cup victory in 1956 and who, in the 1960s and 70s, rivaled Muhammad Ali as the world’s most popular and recognizable athlete, died Thursday at a Sao Paulo hospital. He was 82, and had been in poor health for the last several years as he battled cancer and what the hospital described in a statement this week as “kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Never heard a bad thing about him.
The GOAT. RIP.
Rest in PEACE, Pele!.....................
RIP
First RATE man.
My impression of soccer when a kid was that most Americans were hardly aware it existed as a sport outside of HS gym class, until Pele’ came along. He did a lot to popularize the sport in this country.
RIP
RIP. The Greatest Soccer Player Ever. He definitely expanded the game’s appeal. All fo Brazil is in mourning I’m sure.
I saw him play in Sao Paulo in the 1960s. He was wonderful to watch so totally in control of the ball and so fluid in his movements. Like a seasoned ballet dancer.
“My father was crying with a lot of Brazilians,” the man better known as Pelé remembered. “My father used to say, men should be strong. Men doesn’t cry. Then I saw my father cry when Brazil lost the game.
I watched Brasil play The Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup quarterfinal at a local Brasilian restaurant with the local Brasilian community. Brasil lost and yes, a lot of grown men were in tears.
The true GOAT as opposed to fake goats like Lebron and some nasty female American gymnast. RIP, Sir Pele.
RIP.
In 1979 my college soccer team was a club. None of the players were openly gag, and we all had the Pele poster on our dorm walls. It was all about the love of the game.
2014 Semifinal was probably worse.
Germany put in 7 goals in the first half…
And as good as Messi is, calling him the “GOAT” is just flat out ridiculous, people who have no concept of the history of the game.
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