Monday, January 2, 2023  

Obituaries

 

• 27 May 2024: Former U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96
• 25 August 2023: Russian government: Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin recorded on plane that crashed without survivors
• 13 June 2023: Italy: Former PM Silvio Berlusconi dies at age 86
• 7 March 2023: "National treasure": Former Brazilian footballer Pele dies at age 82
• 27 February 2023: US singer Madonna's elder brother Anthony Ciccone dies at age 66

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Former Brazilian association football player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele , died in Sao Paulo of multiple organ failure Thursday. Pele, whose country's government declared him a "national treasure" in 1961, was 82.

A post by Pele's official Instagram account announced the death of "The King": "Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pele, who peacefully passed away today...[he] enchanted the world with his genius in sport, stopped a war, carried out social works all over the world and spread what he most believed to be the cure for all our problems: love."

Pele was born on October 23, 1940, in Tres Coracoes , a town in the state of Minas Gerais , into an impoverished family. Pele himself worked as a shoeshiner , playing informally; he acquired the nickname "Pele" from his incorrect pronunciation of "Bile", the name of a local association football player.

When he was 15, Santos , a local association football club, recruited Pele for its juvenile team, and eventually promoted him to the adult team. In 1956, at the age of 16, he joined the Brazilian national team .

The national team brought Pele, 17, as a reserve during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden; while the Brazilian team was playing in the final, they moved him onto the field. Pele punted the ball over one of the opposing team's defenders , then wheeled around the other man and propelled it into the opponents' goal, scoring. This was voted among the best plays in the history of association football, and Pele was proclaimed the winner of the Cup.

Pele suffered an injury and was largely unable to play in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, although he still won.

Brazil also advanced to the 1966 Cup in England. Although the Associated Press later said that he was "already considered the world’s top player" by 1966, Brazil was ejected in the group stage; Pele swore never to return to the World Cup. England won the tournament.

Pele nevertheless played in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, his last Cup. Brazil advanced to the final, facing Italy, with Pele making the first goal for his team in that game and winning once again.

In 1972, Pele retired from Santos FC. European clubs invited him to play for them, but he declined. In 1975, Pele made a comeback playing for the New York Cosmos in the new North American Soccer League. After a 1976 game between the Cosmos and Santos, his old club, of which he played half with each team, Pele announced he was again retiring from professional association football.

Pele wrote an autobiography in 1977, My Life and the Beautiful Game , which the Associated Press credited with the popularization of that nickname for the sport.

Pele had been hospitalized more than a month ago in Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo while undergoing treatment for colon cancer, which he developed in 2021; the hospital attributed the multiple organ failure that killed him Thursday afternoon to this cancer.

After the announcement, current Brazilian footballer Neymar posted to Instagram, "Pele changed everything. He transformed football into art, entertainment...Football and Brazil elevated their standing thanks to the King! He is gone, but his magic will endure. Pele is eternal!”

French footballer Kylian Mbappe tweeted, "The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten...RIP KING."

Jair Bolsonaro , the President of Brazil, who will depart that office on Sunday, called Pele, "a great citizen and patriot, raising the name of Brazil wherever he went" in a statement and ordered three days of national mourning .

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , the President-elect, tweeted, "few Brazilians carried the name of our country as far as he did."

Emmanuel Macron , the President of France, tweeted, "The game. The king. Eternity."

• Andrew Downie and Gabriel Araujo. " Soccer star Pele, Brazilian legend of the beautiful game, dies at 82 " —  Reuters , December 29, 2022
• Tales Azzoni and Mauricio Savarese. " Pele, Brazil’s mighty king of ‘beautiful game,’ has died " —  Associated Press , December 29, 2022
  

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This page is archived , and is no longer publicly editable. Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication. Got a correction? Add the template {{ editprotected }} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators . Please note that due to our archival policy , we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.