Angel Valdes | December 29, 2022
Pele dies
1940 – 2022
Pelé died 1940 – 2022
Pele dies: Edson Arantes do Nascimentobetter known as Pelewas born on October 23, 1940 in Minas Gerais, the son of Joao Ramos do Nascimento and María Celeste Arantes, who never imagined at that time that little Edson would become a world star and considered the best player to ever set foot on a court. football in the history of this sport.
Professional debut in Santos
Barely at the age of 16, he made his professional debut with the club where he spent a large part of his career, Santos, where he won six Brazilian League titles, four trophies from the Rio-Sao Paulo Tournament, ten from the Paulista Championship, at the international level he achieved with the Santos the Copa Libertadores de América title on two occasions, the Intercontinental Cup twice and the Intercontinental Champions Super Cup on one occasion. In addition, he is the top scorer in the club’s history with 643 goals in total, he was with the team until 1974.
For the year 1975 he tried his luck outside the border and signed with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, managing to win the championship of said league.
He made his debut with the Brazilian team in 1957 at just 16 years old, in total he played in 4 World Cups, being champion in Sweden 1958, Chile 1962 and Mexico 1970, being the youngest player to win a World Cup.
In total, he scored 12 times in the World Cup and was chosen as the best young player in 1958 and as the best player in 1970, he shares with Neymar the record for the most goals with the Brazilian team with 77 scores.
As a curious fact, O Rei never won the Copa América with the Brazilian team, being the closest he came in 1959 to being runner-up.
According to the statistics of the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) at the time of retiring from soccer in 1977, Pelé had scored 1,301 goals in 775 official matches, currently the fourth most in history.
Recognitions for his sports career
United Nations named him Ambassador of the World in 1977
Ambassador for Ecology and Environment by the UN in 1992
UNESCO Ambassador of Education, Science and Culture in 1994
Minister of Sports in Brazil in the period 1994-1998
Honorary Knight of the British Empire in 1997
The International Olympic Committee distinguished him in 1999 as the best athlete of the 20th century.
Best official footballer of the 20th century in a vote carried out by the FIFA Football Committee in 1999
Ambassador of Sport at the World Economic Forum in 2006
Honorary Ballon d’Or by France Football magazine in 2013
Included in the historic Ballon d’Or Dream Team in 2020
illness and death
After several health problems from which he was able to get ahead, in September 2021 he was diagnosed colon cancerBy the end of November 2022, the disease had progressed, being admitted to the hospital where his health deteriorated until December 29, 2022, when his children made it official that Pelé died, one of the greatest legends of football and soccer. world sport. Pelé died on December 29, 2022.
