…commendations flow in from soccer greats

…Pele loved Nigeria’s 94 World Cup team and Olympic 96 Dream Team

Global soccer legend Pele, who is the only player in history to win three World Cups, passed away at the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, following a battle with cancer.

Pele of Brazil became an icon of the game after winning the World Cup with his home country in 1958 as a 17-year-old, netting twice in the final to defeat hosts Sweden.

Pele led Brazil to three World Cup title wins in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and was widely regarded as one of the best players to ever play the game.

One of Pele’s passions in his later years was mentoring and pontificating African teams to rise to the challenge of the World Cup and win it in foreseeable times. He particularly favoured Nigeria’s 1994 World Cup team, which played with a certain ‘Brazilian’ flair, fervor, confidence and optimism and were eventually voted the most entertaining team of the tournament.

 He also commended the Nigerian Dream Team which won Gold in the Atlanta 96 Olympic Games.

Pele played most of his club football with all conquering Brazilian side, Santos and was said to have scored a record 1,281 goals in 1,363 appearances during a career that spanned 21 years.

A message from Pele’s official Twitter account on Thursday read: “Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pelé, who peacefully passed away today. Love, love and love, forever.”

Kely Nascimento, Pele’s daughter, also confirmed her dad’s demise in an Instagram post. “Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace,” she wrote.

The post was accompanied by a picture apparently of his family members putting their hands on his body.

Pele, who is Brazil’s joint all-time top scorer with 77 goals in 92 matches, averaging almost a goal a game during his club career, which spanned from 1956 to 1977. He became an icon of the game after winning the World Cup in 1958 as a 17-year-old, netting twice in the final victory over hosts Sweden.

Pele was named FIFA’s player of the century in the year 2000.

Widely regarded as one of soccer’s greatest players, Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, had been battling colon cancer since 2021. He had also been hospitalised for the last month with multiple ailments while undergoing treatment for the cancer.

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Former Brazil striker, Ronaldo has said Pele’s “legacy transcends generations”. Ronaldo is third on the list with 62 goals and is one of Brazil’s all-time great strikers too.

The former Real Madrid and Barcelona forward paid tribute to the “greatest of all time”. Ronaldo wrote on social media: “Unique. Great. Technical. Creative. Perfect. Unequalled.

“Where Pele came, he stayed. Never left the top, he leaves us today. The king of football – one. The greatest of all time. The world of mourning. The sadness of the farewell mixed with the immense pride of written history.

“What a privilege to come after you, my friend. Your talent is a school every player should go through. His legacy transcends generations. And that’s how you’re going to get on with it. “Today and always, we will celebrate you. Thank you, Pele. Rest in peace.”

Another Brazil legend, Roberto Carlos, also paid tribute. “The football world thanks you for everything you did for us thank you KING,” he wrote on Instagram.

Current Brazil and Manchester United winger, Antony said: “The greatest of them all! The King, inspiration, example, the only, the ETERNAL!!”

Neymar, Brazil’s joint-highest scorer in men’s international football alongside Pele, shared an emotional tribute to his idol following his passing.

“‘Before Pelé, 10, was just a number’,” Neymar, who wears the No 10 for Brazil and also started his career with Santos, wrote in a post on Instagram.

“I’ve read this phrase somewhere, at some point in my life. But this sentence, beautiful, is incomplete. “I would say before Pelé football was just a sport. Pelé has changed it all. He turned football into art, into entertainment.

He gave voice to the poor, to the blacks and especially: he gave visibility to Brazil. Soccer and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He’s gone but his magic remains. Pelé is forever.”

Sky Sports football commentator Martin Tyler says Pele deserves to be remembered as the best player to have played the game.

He said: “For me he is the greatest player of all time. One of my early jobs outside of television was to put the English voice on a VHS, as it was in those days, of his Brazil career and his 1,000 goals.

“If I had any doubts about how good he was, that video proved it. It was a privilege to do that and pay tribute to a man who could do so much more than score goals.


“He will always be remembered for the ability to score amazing goals in terrible conditions on bumpy pitches, when players had more license to use all means to stop him. He was irresistible. “Undoubtedly for me he will always be the greatest and in the football world he is immortal.”

Was he the greatest ever? It’s a futile question, insidious in the way it encourages advocates of one of the candidates to pick faults in the others. Far more relevant is that, really, of players who have retired, there are only two, perhaps three, contenders. There is Pele, there is Maradona and, possibly, there is Alfredo Di Stefano, although the fact he never played at a World Cup counts against him.

Whether he was the greatest or not is irrelevant. He was great, and he was the greatest at perhaps the greatest World Cup, that great moment of glorious possibility in Mexico. For that month in 1970, he produced the greatest of which humanity is capable.

Pele’s name will forever feature in debates over who is the greatest footballer of all time, but regardless of whether he is considered so or not, his influence and impact on the sport is undeniable.