The life of the Brazilian legend Pelé, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 82, has been studded with events outside the green rectangle, like his career full of numbers and successes inside it, as he has been married three times, has suffered relationships rowdy with his children and landed game-changing endorsement deals that have helped line their pockets for today’s players.
AFP takes a look at the other side of the number 10’s life.
“Talk to your doctor.”
Pele was involved in deals that allowed current players to debit huge sums of money from the popular game. He has made millions promoting MasterCard and Visa, which specialize in credit card payment systems, as well as sandals made from recycled tire parts.
In her book “Sneaker Wars” Barbara Smit tells in detail how Pele at the 1970 World Cup signed an agreement with the sportswear company “Puma”, according to which he received $ 25,000 in the tournament at that time, as well as $ 100,000 in the next four years, which led to declining sales of other major shoe brands.
The deal, which broke an agreement between ‘Puma’ and their rival ‘Adidas’, involves not signing Pelé due to the cost that will come from fighting the offer, provided the Brazilian wears his shoes before the match of the quarterfinals against Peru.
He actually did, which resulted in him being paid the equivalent of $2.85 million today, not counting what he earned from shoe sales.
However, his most famous promotional campaign was for the drug “Viagra” to combat impotence in 2002, when he appeared on video inside the famous “Maracana” stadium in Rio de Janeiro, saying: “Talk to your doctor, I will.”
In the same year, he was named Japan’s first educational ambassador for the treatment of erectile dysfunction due to his advertising campaign for the drug. However, Pele claimed he never used Viagra.
Troubled family life
The three-time World Cup winner has often been regarded as a safe and corporate friend unlike the late Argentine legend, Diego Armando Maradona, who has always been compared to the title of the best footballer in history. However, the Brazilian’s personal life was turbulent, similar to that of the golden boy.
His son, Edinho, born two months after the Samba team’s victory at the 1970 World Cup, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2017 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
During an interview that same year with the “Bleacher Report” site, Edinho recounted how Pelé was no longer a good father after moving with his family to New York to join the Cosmos team in the mid-1970s, and his separation from his first wife, Rose Meri dos Reis Scholby, shortly after his arrival in the United States.
He later reconciled with Edinho to play the latter with the Santos club where Pele grew up, but his relationship with his first daughter was not good.
He refused to recognize Sandra Arantes do Nascimento, born in 1964, following an affair with a maid, although Brazilian courts confirmed in 1996 that she was his daughter after five years of legal battles.
She published a book called “The Daughter the King Didn’t Want” and was elected to the Santos City Council.
She died in 2006 at the age of 42 from breast cancer. Pele refused to attend her funeral, nor did he recognize her two children.
At the age of 76, he married for the third time in 2016 to entrepreneur Marcia Ayuki, who was just 42 at the time.
They met in New York in the 1980s, but their relationship began in 2010 after they met by chance in an elevator in São Paulo.
between cinema and music
Pele’s life was not limited to football and promotional campaigns, he also had a distinguished experience in the film business, and perhaps his most notable role was as Corporal Luis Fernandez in the classic film”Escape to victory(Escape to Victory), together with the famous American actors Sylvester Stallone and the Englishman Michael Caine, which tells the story of the attempted escape of a group of prisoners of war from a German concentration camp during the Second World War.
Among his works were also the film “A Minor Miracle” (a small miracle), which tells the story of a priest who asks Pele to help save an orphanage, and the series “Os Estranos” (Foreigners) on the relationship of man with aliens.
He also had a brief appearance in the comedy film ‘Mike Bassett: England Manager (England Coach)’, while he refused to appear in an American documentary ‘ESBN’ about the New York Cosmos club, because the producers refused to give him the $ 100,000 he asked.
Pele is also no stranger to the music business, as he started recording songs in the sixties of the last century. In 2006 he released an album called “Pele Ginga” in collaboration with the famous Brazilian artist and songwriter Gilberto Gil.
A decade later, he released the song “Esperanza(Hope) to celebrate the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics, where the prestigious event was held for the first time in South America.
On his 80th birthday in 2020, he recorded a song with Mexican duo Rodrigo and Gabriel, which was crowned with a “Grammy” for music, describing it as “a little gift for his birthday and for the fans.”
Siege of Lagos
One of the most horrific experiences of his life occurred during a Pepsi-sponsored trip to Lagos, Nigeria in 1976 when a failed military coup took place.
The then ruler, General Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated in the coup attempt which led to the shooting of Colonel Buka Soka Dimka, who had been removed from power by government forces within hours.
Pele was in the country with the late American tennis player Arthur Ashe, who was playing the tournament in Lagos.
The then Wimbledon champion was dragged off the court by armed soldiers during his semifinal match with compatriot Jeff Boroviak, and ended up at the Federal Palace Hotel with the Brazilian.
Pele was smuggled out of the country as soon as the government opened its borders, as Brazilian authorities insisted its star wear a pilot’s uniform to hide his identity.
