Ophélie Artaud 9:22 a.m., December 30, 2022
Invited this Friday morning on Europe 1, political scientist and essayist Stéphane Rozès analyzes the emotion after the announcement of the death of legendary footballer Pelé by the "universal" character of the Brazilian.
"He had an incredible talent which meant that the football gesture could be recognized by everyone," he said at the microphone of Lionel Gougelot.
King Pelé passed away on Thursday at the age of 82.
In Brazil, as in the whole world, emotion prevails after the death of this Brazilian football legend, with an exceptional career, which notably enabled his country to win three World Cups.
A common sadness that Stéphane Rozès, political scientist and essayist, co-author of "Chaos. Essay on the imaginaries of peoples", explains by the fact that "Pelé was universal. He had a way of doing things, an incredible talent, which meant that the footballing gesture, in its great quality, could be recognized by all", he underlined at the microphone of Lionel Gougelot.
"He marked the new generations"
A talent recognized throughout the world, but also over the generations.
"Pelé's talent in the Brazilian collective represents an era. His words for Kylian Mbappé show that he could also appear as a passer. He made a lot of footballing innovations and marked the new generations", explains Stéphane Rozès.
For the lecturer at Science-Po, the emotion and the worldwide tribute after the death of Pelé is also explained by "the need of peoples to find themselves in figures that bring people together".
According to him, if "football is a collective sport where individual talent is put at the service of the collective, the collective itself works if it is indexed to the ways of being and doing of the people. We do not play football the same way in Brazil, Argentina or Europe."
>> Find the 8:13 interview in replay and podcast here
Pelé seems to have finally marked "the imagination of peoples".
"Basically, globalization has always been a mosaic of peoples. Each has their own way of being and doing. And each society asks itself the same question: 'how, in the face of reality, do we come together? And how do we articulate the diversity or the social contradictions with coming together?'".
Pelé, like other personalities, therefore seemed to unite people from all over the world around a common passion: football.
"The subject is the relationship with others and the circulation of the ball is the relationship with others", concludes Stéphane Rozès.