Just a few days ago the football world was debating whether Argentinian Lionel Messi had finally become the greatest player in football history by winning the World Cup. And fierce as this debate was, he was bound to remain fruitless. Because he doesn’t exist the greatest player of all decades. What is there are the greatest players of their time. Diego Maradona, who turned the bad eighties into a beautiful football decade. Johan Cruyff, who catapulted football into the modern era in the 1970s. Zinedine Zidane finally speeding up the game.
And of course and above all and always the Brazilian Pele. O Rei the King, they called him home, the highest honor in a country that has produced countless football legends, from Garrincha to Socrates to Ronaldo. However, Pele has hovered over generations of great footballers ever since he mesmerized the world with his tricks, runs and shots at the 1958 World Cup when he was just 17 years old. Actually, the boy from the small town of Três Corações in southeast Brazil was not supposed to come. „Too childish” was the verdict of the team doctors on the boy who, a few years earlier, was kicking barefoot in the street with a grapefruit wrapped in his socks.
„The cloak of an invisible king hangs over his shoulders.”
Now the crowd at the Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm, sold out, and in front of the televisions rubbed their eyes in front of the Selecao, who played for the first time in her yellow jerseys, which soon became iconic, playing cat and mouse with the bosses Swedish house. And it was hard to believe how, when Brazil were 2-1 up, Pele playfully stopped the rapidly falling ball in the penalty area with his chest, elegantly lifted it above the Swedish defender and finally slotted in a leisurely volley. The shooting made Pele a worldwide star, and he seemed to sense worldwide fame himself as he wept into the chest of experienced goalkeeper Gilman after the final whistle.
Writers, journalists and opponents soon struggled to describe the nature of this footballer. „An invisible king’s cloak hangs from his shoulders,” playwright Nelson Rodrigues and Pele’s Italian opponent Tarcisio Burgnich spoke reverently: „I told myself before the match that Pele was just flesh and blood like me. I was wrong”. And Eduardo Galeano, the great poet of South America, finally saw his opponents turn against the wall to see Pele’s goals with his own eyes in amazement. poetry or reality? They were attempts to describe a completely new kind of football that required perfect control of the playing equipment, but depended even more on anticipating what was going to happen on the field. Others kicked the ball, Pele stroked it. Others stood where the ball was, Pele stood where it would go.
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But as soon as Pele stepped into the spotlight, he discovered the downside of his global popularity. On the pitch, defenders made it their job to stop the Brazilian world star with grim brutality, he had to learn to dodge their tackles with breathtaking agility. And in real life, Pele was nearly overwhelmed by the overwhelming love he received back home. Here as there, Pele was helped by his rather simple outlook on life and deep faith which he has repeatedly emphasized in interviews. He understood his rise, victories and worldwide fame as a kind of gift from God, which he humbly accepted.
