The revered Pele – one of the greatest soccer players ever – has passed on at the age of 82.
Pelé’s agent, Joe Fraga, confirmed his death, according to The Associated Press.
He was in palliative care at a São Paulo hospital following reports that he was no longer responding to chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer, which he was diagnosed with in Sept. 2021.
Pelé’s daughter revealed a couple of days ago that her father would remain hospitalized through the Christmas holiday under “elevated care” due to “kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.”
“We decided with doctors that, for many reasons, it will be best for us to stay here, with all the care that this new family at [Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo] gives us,” his daughter Kely Nascimento wrote on Instagram. “We love you and we will give up an update next week.”
Widely regarded as one of soccer’s greatest players, Pelé spent nearly two decades enchanting fans and dazzling opponents as the game’s most prolific scorer with Brazilian club Santos and the Brazil national team.
He carried Brazil to soccer’s heights and became a global ambassador for his sport in a journey that began on the streets of Sao Paulo state, where he would kick a sock stuffed with newspapers or rags.
Different sources, counting different sets of games, list Pelé’s goal totals anywhere between 650 (league matches) and 1,281 (all senior matches, some against low-level competition.)
Pelé’s fame was such that in 1967 factions of a civil war in Nigeria agreed to a brief cease-fire so he could play an exhibition match in the country.
Pelé’s dominance continued through the Sixties as his Santos team won six championships in the Brazilian league over the course of that decade, while Brazil also won the World Cup in 1962 and 1970, with Pelé winning the Golden Ball for best player at the latter tournament.
In his 19 seasons at Santos, spanning from 1956 to 1974 and roughly 660 games, Pelé scored a record-shattering 643 goals.
He was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. When he visited Washington to help popularize the game in North America, it was the U.S. president who stuck out his hand first.
Pelé’s life after soccer took many forms. He was a politician — Brazil’s Extraordinary Minister for Sport — a wealthy businessman, and an ambassador for UNESCO and the United Nations.
