• Obituary Pelé dies, long live 'O Rei' of football

  • Legacy Pelé scored the two best goals in history and you can't see them

"I don't know why God loves me so much."

With a broken voice, a night voice, a bolero voice,

Pelé

justified himself before the siege of fans to which he was subjected in a hotel in Madrid.

A shipping company promoted a cruise ship with this icon who never played in European clubs or won the Copa América, but who has been the representative of the World Cup in the flesh, the only player with three titles.

Alfredo di Stefano

He also left us during the appointment in Brazil, but the Argentine, founder of the spirit of the victorious Real Madrid, embodied the opposite: the dominance of the clubs, the European Cup.

The impact of his deaths during the tournament is, therefore, very different, because with Pelé a part of the World Cup dies, but his story remains, a wonderful story.

On that first date with Pelé it was impossible for him to remember her, worried that the photos he signed would not be folded by the fans so that the ink would not run, very different from footballers who scribble without looking.

In another encounter, he did.

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Pelé dies, long live football 'O Rei'

  • Drafting: CARLOS TORO

Pelé dies, long live football 'O Rei'

Edson Arantes do Nascimento

, Pelé, played in four World Cups (Sweden 1958, Chile 1962, England 1966 and Mexico 1970), one less than Messi or Cristiano, but he won three (1958, 1962 and 1970), with 12 goals in the final stages.

He went to the first, in Sweden, as a teenager, aged 17, after making his debut for Brazil at the Maracana at 16. Brazil won the title with two of their goals in the final against the hosts.

'SHOCK' FOR A TEENAGER

The continental, cultural and social leap caused a kind of 'shock' in Pelé.

"I went from being in the interior of Brazil to one of the most advanced societies in the world. I didn't understand anything. I remember

asking Didi

if the rest of the countries didn't like us blacks, because no other team, except Brazil, had black players", Pelé explained about his adventures in Sweden.

"The other thing that caught my attention was the freedom of Swedish women. We were gathered near a lake where they were going to sunbathe topless. As I passed by, I covered my eyes, embarrassed. Me, a believing child, I believed that God was going to punish me if I looked. If I did, I would ask him for forgiveness. That World Cup was my first school in life", added the late player.

The coach

Vicente Feola

had doubts about Pelé's ownership due to his youth and the wide range of attackers he had, but Didí,

Santos

and

Gilmar

convinced him and the young Santos footballer scored a crucial goal against Wales in the knockout phase. groups.

Next, a 'hat trick' against

Just Fontaine

's France .

Pelé was fired.

Of the two goals in the final, won by Brazil 5-2 in Stockholm, the first was anthology: he stopped with his chest, let the ball bounce to wait for

Gustavsson

to enter , gave him a 'hat' and scored from volley.

Didí, the footballer from the 'folha seca', was named the best player in the World Cup, but the world had discovered Garrincha and Pelé.

THE GREAT WORK OF 1970

"That first World Cup was very important, because the people of Brazil lacked confidence, after the failures of 1950 and 1954, especially the first, the 'Maracanazo,'" continued Pelé, who lifted the

Jules Rimet

Cup again four years later, in Chile, in 1962, but it was a title that did not feel like the others.

He arrived at the appointment as a great attraction, but with problems due to having had a groin sprain.

Despite this, he played in all three games of the first phase until in the third he felt that he couldn't take it anymore.

Since there were no changes, he had to continue on the pitch.

He didn't play anymore.

Pelé carried on his shoulders after winning the final in Mexico 1970.

"We won and it was very important, even though I was injured, but the best of my life in a World Cup was yet to come. It was in Mexico, in 1970. We were unbeaten in all the games in the qualifying phase and I played them all, unlike before the championship in Chile", he explained, excited.

Pelé opened the scoring after 19 minutes in the final against Italy, at the Azteca Stadium, in one of the matches remembered as the best in history, with

Rivelino

,

Jairzinho

,

Gerson

or

Tostao

in Brazil and an Italy with

Facchetti

,

Mazzola

or

Gigi Riva

.

After the tie, he participated in the following goals, on the way to the win (4-1).

HUNTED IN ENGLAND

Before, Pelé had played in the 1966 World Cup, played in England, in which he was caught with impunity after the preparation of the event by the Brazilian Football Confederation was a disaster.

He scored in the first game from a free-kick against Bulgaria, who they defeated 2-0, but was brutally punished by defender

Zhechev

without the referee stopping him.

Brazil decided not to play the next game and the team fell 3-1 against Hungary.

It was necessary for him to do it again despite the risks.

The Portuguese Morais left him out of the game with a brutal double entry, in a match that was going to meet one of the sensations of that World Cup:

Eusebio

.

Pelé played in a much more unprotected football, without so many cameras, and in which violent tackles were more frequent than in the current one.

In 1962, despite winning, as in 1966, his prayers and those of his mother had not prevented what he had always feared the most.

"When I pray, I ask, but I have never done it to win a title. Just so I don't get hurt. My mother used to tell me that I had calluses on my knees from kneeling so much to ask God that nothing happen to me," recalled this legend who The only thing he wanted when he started playing in Minas Gerais was to be like his father.

He was a mediocre footballer who played in the city where Pelé was born and in Sao Paulo.

He felt such admiration that his nickname, Pelé, would be an adaptation of the goalkeeper of his father's team, Bilé.

When he turned 17, the World Cup began to turn that nickname into a legend.

That Pelé with whom he got used to living, he said: "That's why I don't need to hide behind sunglasses like those singers."

The footballers that followed him are like rock stars, but today they all take off their glasses because O Rei has died.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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