Brazilian football icon Pele, a three-time World Cup winner and widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, has died at the age of 82.
In a statement, the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo confirmed the news that the legend had passed away due to “multiple organ failure” following a long battle with cancer.
“We love you infinitely. Rest in peace,” daughter Kely Nascimento wrote on Instagram.
Everyone in football, from his former teammates to current stars, came together to honour “O Rei” (The King), who had a long professional career that started when he was still a teenager and changed the game.
Brazil star Neymar said Pele “transformed football into an art,” France’s Kylian Mbappe said his legacy “will never be forgotten,” and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo called him an “inspiration to millions.”
Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi simply wrote: “Rest in peace.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro declared three days of national mourning, while president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is due to take office Sunday, tweeted: “Thank you, Pele.”
Pele is the only soccer player who has ever won three World Cups. He did this in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
During his 21-year career, he scored 1,281 goals in 1,363 games, which is a world record.
He had been getting sicker and sicker, with kidney problems and colon cancer. In September 2021, he had surgery for the colon cancer, which was followed by chemotherapy.
In Santos, the city in the southeast where he played most of his career, there will be a wake on Monday and a funeral on Tuesday, his old club said.
The city had seven days of mourning, and fans left flowers at the stadium where the team played.
Emotional Brazilians also went to the hospital where Pele died. Antonio Perera, 46, and his son Luis Eduardo, 12, ran 1.5 kilometers (almost a mile) to get there.
“He’s our greatest idol, the greatest footballer of all time,” Perera told AFP.
International leaders like US Vice President Joe Biden and former US President Barack Obama, as well as Brazilian music legends Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, also paid tribute to Pele.
“As one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, he understood the power of sports to bring people together,” Obama wrote.
Photo by John Varley/Shutterstock/BackpagePix
