PThe one who comes to me
I lead
What went on
and follows.
If the goal is achieved
He will rest
i will get there
Reason
I need to rest too.
These are lines from a poem written by Pele. He has reached his final destination; To rest forever.
Peruvian footballer Ramon Mifflin once wrote of Pele: “I have never seen a man sleep like Pele. Once we were traveling from Brussels to Tokyo. Halfway around the world, he slept for nearly twenty-six hours.”
When asked about this, Pele said, “There’s no better way to be alone than to close your eyes.”
True, we always think of every other footballer in a crowd, be it Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo, but not Pele, he is alone, like the peak of Pico da Neblinha in Brazil.
Goalkeeper Shep Messing remembers Pele in his hotel room the day before his last game: he looked a thousand years old. He smiled like an Egyptian sphinx. His hands darkened against the sandalwood bedspread. the hands of a man who made his living with his feet; They were hard and smooth at the same time.
Pele once joked that if he hadn’t become a footballer, he would have been a factory worker or a salesman. He saw no glory in football which these two jobs lacked; Whatever the job, he thought, it was just about doing it well.
He worked hard to make up for his shortcomings not only on the field but in life as well. He didn’t have the opportunity to get much education in his youth, but he wasn’t in vain. Even at the height of his fame, he tried to study. and he managed to get a university degree.
Once upon a time Pele and his wife Rosa Maria were traveling through Italy. When Pope Paul VI learned of it, he expressed his interest in meeting him. Pele bothered to speak to the Pope in his limited Italian. But the Italian newspapers of the following day wrote that it was the Pope who was more worried than Pelé. It may be that the Pope has understood that football is a bigger religion and has more followers than the religion it represents.
A member of only the third generation of freed slaves, Pelé says of meeting Nelson Mandela: I have met many – popes, presidents, kings, Hollywood stars – but nothing touched me like this meeting. He asked me: “Here in South Africa there are many races and many languages. In your Brazil there is wealth and only one language – Portuguese – and yet you are poor? Why are you not united?”
Pele didn’t have the economics to answer the first question. But to the second question he mentally replied: There is something that unites us. He has brought us together since we lost the first World Cup final against Uruguay in 1950; His name is soccer.
Many have written about Pele’s athleticism. But nothing like Eduardo Galliano wrote. Here’s how Galliano draws Pele:
At speed, it cuts through opponents like a knife through butter. When he gets up, his opponents will have lost their sense of direction by falling inside the ravanankota created by those legs. Jump like climbing a ladder in the sky. And when he takes the free kick, the opposing players, lined up like a wall, will look back, so as not to miss the beautiful view of the ball going into the net.”
The footballer, declared a national treasure by the Brazilian government to prevent him from being kidnapped by any other country, has many names: the Italians call him il Re (the King); The French called it Tulipe Noire (Black Tulip); Also known as Perola Negre (Black Pearl) by Brazilians. Be that as it may, the name that best suits it is football; Because he is synonymous with it.
When Pele’s last soccer match ended, it had started to rain. His teammates took him around the stadium. As they rose he whispered, “One more time…”
No one needs to take charge of that man; Those who have wings don’t need them!
Source:
1. My life and Pele’s beautiful game
2. Young Pele: Lesa Cline Ransome’s first soccer star
3. Why football matters by Pelé
4. Football in the sun and in the shadow of Eduardo Galeano
