Edson Arantes do Nascimento clearly remembered the first time he saw his father cry. It was 1950. Brazil, making its first World Cup appearance, had just been beaten by Uruguay in the final.
“My father cried with many Brazilians,” recalled the man higher generally known as Pelé. “My father used to say that men needs to be strong. Men don’t cry. Then I saw my father crying when Brazil lost the match.
“Then I told him: Father, don’t fret. I’ll win the world championship for you. … [Six] years later I used to be in Sweden with Brazil and Brazil won the World Cup. I used to be 17 years old. It was a present from God. I do not know why I said it, why I promised it to my father.”
Pelé, the Brazilian football star who led his country to victory in the 1956 World Cup and who rivaled Muhammad Ali as the world’s hottest and recognizable athlete in the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, died Thursday in a Sao Paulo hospital . He was 82, had been in poor health for several years, battling cancer and what the hospital described in an announcement this month as “kidney and heart dysfunction.”
![Pele](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-900481092.jpg?w=1024)
![Pele](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/AFP_32Y49GZ.jpg?w=1024)
Pelé, whose presence at an exhibition match in Nigeria in 1969 led to a two-day ceasefire in that country’s bitter civil war in order that each side could see him play, became the only player to win three World Cups when Brazil won again in 1962 and 1970, greater than keeping a naive and youthful promise to my father.
Pelé played for Santos in his home country and turned down quite a few offers to play in Europe during his profession, citing his loyalty to Brazil. He planned to retire after playing his last game for Santos in 1974. Nonetheless, he was deeply in debt, and at the age of 35, he agreed to a $7 million contract (in response to a 1975 Recent York Times article) to play the last three seasons of his skilled profession with the Recent York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League.
With Pelé as the predominant attraction, the Cosmos routinely filled the 80,000-seat Giants Stadium almost to capability, and his league-wide presence helped increase average attendance by almost 80 percent between 1975 (7,597) and 1977 (13,584).
Because of his skills and personality, Pelé is credited with pioneering the slow but regular growth of football – “the beautiful game”, as he called it – in the United States.
“It was really ridiculous to think that Pelé, the biggest player of all, could be playing on this ridiculous little NYC team that will draw 1,500 people,” said Clive Toye, CEO of Cosmos. “But I told him to not go to Italy, to not go to Spain, all you possibly can do is win the championship. Come to the USA and you may win the country.
![Pele](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-488780302.jpg?w=1024)
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born on October 23, 1940 to Dondinho and Dona Celeste in the run-down city of Tres Coracoes in southeastern Brazil. His father was an area football player and young Edson began playing football with a rolled-up newspaper in his sock.
Soon he was higher at the game than all the other kids in the neighborhood and so they nicknamed him Pelé after the teenager mutilated the name of Bile, the goalkeeper of the Brazilian team Vasco da Gama and his favorite player. Pele didn’t like his nickname at first, but it surely stuck.
He began making a reputation for himself at Bauru Athletic Club where he was spotted by Valdemar de Brito, a former World Cup player who brought him to the attention of Santos, an area club team. In his first full season, Pelé scored 32 goals for the league leaders and was soon chosen for the 1958 World Cup in Brazil. he was 17 years old.
![Pelé scored in Brazil's semi-final victory over France in the 1958 World Cup.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/AP580624043.jpg?w=1024)
![Pelé, 17, stares at the trophy ahead of his Brazilian debut at the 1958 World Cup.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-78961706.jpg?w=1024)
Pelé missed the first two matches of the tournament in Sweden because of a knee injury, but returned to attain the winning goal in the quarter-finals. He added a hat-trick in the semi-finals and two goals in Brazil’s final 5-2 victory over the hosts.
The heroism of the prodigy coincided with the first international television broadcast of the World Cup. Pelé, a nickname he initially disliked, became a household name around the world.
Brazil won the World Cup again in 1962, and after the defending champions suffered a crushing defeat in group play and were eliminated in the 1966 World Cup in England, Pelé, while still in the prime of his profession, announced that he had played in his final the World Cup. Cup.
“I used to be really torn,” Pelé said in a 2021 documentary. “I didn’t need to play in the Seventies World Cup. I didn’t need to repeat what happened in England.
This position didn’t sit well with his compatriots or Brazil’s president Emilio Medici, and news reached Pelé that he might need to reconsider. The country was in a state of upheaval for a few years, and the ruthless Medici, one of the despots who controlled Brazil from 1964-78, was known to imprison and/or torture anyone who opposed him. It could just be higher for everyone if Pele laced up his boots for his country yet one more time.
Pelé, who considered himself politically neutral, had already faced criticism for meeting the Medici earlier.
![Pelé dribbles during the 1962 World Cup.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-79031755.jpg?w=1024)
“I do not think I could do anything,” he said in the documentary. “It wasn’t possible. …I’m Brazilian. I would like what’s best for my country. I’m not Superman. I do not work miracles.
“I used to be just a traditional person given the gift of being a footballer. But I’m absolutely sure that I even have done rather more for Brazil through football in my very own way than many politicians who’re paid to accomplish that.”
So Pelé, then 29, played in Mexico in 1970, and Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in the final, with Pelé scoring the first goal of the match.
![Pele kisses the World Cup trophy after winning it in 1970.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-78989379.jpg?w=1009)
![Pele is carried off the field after winning the 1970 World Cup.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/GettyImages-79664037.jpg?w=1024)
“The 1970 World Cup was the best moment of my life, but I feel it was more essential for the nation,” he said. “Because if Brazil had lost Mexico, things would have gone much worse. Brazil’s victory gave the whole country a respite. The 1970 World Cup was for the nation, not the sport.
Pelé signed with the Cosmos in 1975, bringing some credibility to the seven-year league. At the time, he was the highest-paid team athlete in the world. He retired from football the 12 months before, and his decision to return to the US field upset his compatriots, as he adamantly said he would never play again and sat out the 1974 World Cup.
He retired – this time for good – after leading the Kosmos to the NASL Championship in 1977, although he returned later that 12 months for an exhibition game against Santos, his old club team. Pelé played the first half of that match for Kosmos and the second half for Santos. He finished his profession with 1,283 goals in 1,367 matches.
![Pele in a hospital bed](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/pele-death-025.jpg?w=819)
Pelé, who once held the title of Brazil’s sports minister, spent a few years after his retirement serving as an envoy for the game he loved, and his worldwide fame continued long after he had played his last game.
A reporter once asked Pelé if his fame was comparable to that of Jesus Christ.
“There are parts of the world where Jesus Christ is just not so well-known,” he said.