Three-Time World Cup Champion Pelé Dead at 82
Brazil fans sending their support to Pele
Pelé, a three-time World Cup winner and widely considered one of football’s greatest players, died on Thursday in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was 82 years old.Manager Joe Fraga has confirmed the football legend died while in hospital. Pelé had recently been readmitted to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital amid failing health related to a previous colon cancer diagnosis.“Everything we have is thanks to you. We love you endlessly. Rest in peace,” Kelly Nascimento, Pelé’s eldest daughter, said on social media on Thursday. Days before Christmas, the Santos FC star received a medical report that he needed care for cardiac and renal dysfunction. After that diagnosis, his family members gathered at the Albert Einstein Israelita Hospital in Sao Paulo and posted pictures of their bedside vigil on social media.On November 30, Pelé had to undergo non-elective surgery for for general swelling of the body and heart failure. Soon after, it was reported that the football legend had stopped responding to chemotherapy and started receiving palliative care. He never left the hospital after being admitted in November. He had been battling colon cancer since September 2021.Pelé, given name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, started his career with Santos FC at the age of 15 and by 17, he had become a worldwide star after helping the Brazilian national team win the 1958 World Cup.Pelé won three World Cups during his 20-year career, in 1958, 1962 and 1970. He remains the only player in the history of the sport to achieve that feat.Beyond his World Cup Wins, Pelé was also named the FIFA player of the Century and the World Player of the Century. During his career he also won two Copa Libertadores titles, South America’s highest level of football competition, and two Intercontinental Cup titles, a competition including both South America and Europe that ran from 1960 to 2004.The number of total goals scored by Pelé over his career is a matter of debate. Officially, the Brazilian icon scored 757 goals across 831 games, however Santos FC claims the total was closer to 1,000 goals. The official tally gives him the third most goals all time, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The Santos tally would make Pelé the prolific football scorer of all time.Pelé is survived by his wife Marcia Aoki and six children, one of Pele’s children, who he never accepted as his daughter, died in 2006.
