Pelé, in figures: 80 years, 100 million dollars, more than 1,000 goals, three wives, six children and a wheelchair

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On the day he turns

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who in his day was crowned as O Rei, is an

who spends almost all his time

surrounded by his family and without the desire to lead a social life, perhaps because in the last public appearance that he is known, earlier this year, he was seen

and that conveys a great weakness.

This circumstance, for someone who has been

history, is a serious blow to self-esteem.

But still, no matter how much time advances and age increases, there is something that time cannot erode

, which is his category of

He is still the best footballer of all time, the number 1 of the 20th century, with statistics and achievements that perhaps no one can knock down in the 21st.

As the station wagon said, he

One of the bar counter and television talk poll debates in recent years has been whether

has been the best footballer of all time, or if that honor is deserved by

.

In some respects they have been better than Pelé - one has Ballon d'Or, the other scored the goal of the century - but Pelé still has

is still the youngest player to have lifted that same trophy - he did it in Sweden , in 1958, when he was barely 17 years old-, he boasts of having scored

throughout his career, and also achieved the feat of scoring

-in the semifinal of Mexico 70 against Uruguay - without the need for the ball to enter the goal.

While other huge footballers have lost ground in the race for the number 1 of all time - there are still those who defend

, or

, even

, however - Pelé cannot be easily removed from the pedestal.

No, at least, until Messi can wear a World Cup - he only has the Qatar 2022 attempt - in his record.

Pelé is fundamentally a soccer man, and his fame - his pop dimension, so to speak - is limited almost exclusively to what he did on the pitch, because of his enormous beauty and plasticity, and not what happened to him outside.

There are other very great forwards who stood out with the ball and are later remembered also for samba, such as Romário or Ronaldinho, who

their opponents'

, which is to say, but Pelé was pure image and statistics: he claims to have scored more than 1,300 goals in his career -the number 1,000, legend has it, he got it from a penalty-, although it is

the post count, at least of official matches between Santos, NY Cosmos and Canarinha, It is around 800. It was also a time when a pachanga was not so different from a Copa Libertadores final, and goals were celebrated the same on the beach as in Maracana.

Be that as it may, he

with his own shots or by giving the ball to his teammates.

A young Pelé, in an image from the mid-1960s.

In addition to the world trophies and the legend of

, a main feature of Pelé's public figure has been to

tooth and nail.

He has never been extraordinarily arrogant, but he has never wanted to

or for others to question his greatness, and that is why in recent years he has dragged

especially since several voices - mainly in Argentina, of course - have defended Pelusa as the best of all time.

At the beginning of Maradona's career, in the late 1970s, and when Pelé had just retired after playing his last three years in New York, O Rei was something of a

There is

mature

, in which the Brazilian plays the guitar: he saw the future in him, and he was not wrong.

Later, his protégé wanted to storm the throne of the best in history after his feat in Mexico 86, and that was when Pelé began to minimize his achievements and show his own.

That defense of his legacy has also been maintained in the last decade, when the

was unleashed

to the highest step of the mythical classification, without him having yet finished his career.

Pelé, celebrating the victory of the Brazilian team in the 1970 World Cup.

Pelé's origins are similar to those of many footballers who came later: he was

of Três Coraçoes, his father had had experience in football, and quickly stood out for his technique and his career, in a country where that sport was becoming the new religion.

for Santos, and played 18 seasons, before closing his career as a star signing for

the club with which he tried to popularize football - without success - in the United States.

He had retired from the Brazilian team in 1971, after winning his

in Mexico, and since then he has lived linked to Brazilian football as a

as well as an ambassador for the United Nations and UNESCO.

In the mid-1990s, he was involved in an investigation into the collective theft of $ 700,000 of the organization's funds, but

Not that he needed the money, because after leaving football Pelé did not stop earning it thanks to representation work and brand sponsorships.

of New York - valued at almost $ 3 million when he sold it in 2008 - which he bought for just over $ 100,000 when he began his North American adventure.

Most of his money was invested in real estate, which has ultimately provided him with a

of around $

.

Maradona and Pelé, in an Argentine television program, in 2005.

The only thing that Pelé lacked was

He married twice, and twice divorced, until trying for the third time in his old age with

with whom he joined in 2016 at the age of 76.

The two previous marriages were, in their way, bittersweet adventures: his first partner was Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, with whom he had a

and from which he divorced in 1982, after having

Edinho, who gave him a deep disgust when, after also retiring from football - he was a goalkeeper with a discreet career and record - he was linked to drug trafficking and was

for money laundering.

Pelé remarried in 1994, and

until their divorce in 2008;

They had two twin children in 1996, to which should be added an illegitimate daughter, Sandra Machado, who died in 2006, the result of

and whose paternity she has never acknowledged.

He always refused to take a DNA test, although a court ruling firmly established that

With his third and last wife, Marcia Aoki, on their wedding day.TATIANA AGUENAEFE

At present, Pelé's health is very weak, or at least this is how Edinho has reported it to the Brazilian press.

He had suffered

for years

- a kidney was removed in 1977, an operation that was carried out discreetly and that became known several years later - and which have worsened again in recent years.

After his public appearance in a wheelchair in early 2020, the family also revealed that the prostration will now be permanent: Pelé, the fastest and most skilled player of his time, will

And yet, it seems that even then no one will be able to reach him in

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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