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Brazilian soccer legend Pelé dies at age 82

Pelé is widely regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time

Pelé, the soccer legend who inspired a nation on and off the field, died on Thursday after battling colon cancer. He was 82.

Pelé had a tumor removed in September 2021 and has been undergoing chemotherapy since.

A member of three Brazilian World Cup champion teams, Pelé was widely regarded as the greatest soccer player off all time and often was given credit for the term "the beautiful game" used to describe the sport

dson Arantes do Nascimiento, whose father was a struggling soccer player, was born in Tres Coracoes, Brazil, and grew up in poverty in Bauru in the state of Sao Paulo. He was named after the American investor Thomas Edison – though his parents decided to remove the "I" and call him Edson. He was nicknamed "Dico" by his family.

However, it was the nickname Pelé that the world came to know.

Pele was unreal. My hometown was 20 years away from its first soccer league when he became a household name in the States. Everybody knew Jesse Owens, Bobby Orr, Babe Didrikson, Mantle and Maris, Ruth, Robinson, and Mays, the Golden Arm, the Golden Bear, Arnie, Wilt the Stilt . . . and Pele.

SportsFan68 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 29, 2022 4:15 pm

Pele was unreal. My hometown was 20 years away from its first soccer league when he became a household name in the States. Everybody knew Jesse Owens, Bobby Orr, Babe Didrikson, Mantle and Maris, Ruth, Robinson, and Mays, the Golden Arm, the Golden Bear, Arnie, Wilt the Stilt . . . and Pele.

Interesting that during that era, most of the other stars you mentioned would be unknown to most people outside the U.S. and Canada, but Pele's appeal was universal.

He made a movie in the early 1980s called Victory, directed by John Huston. It was a takeoff on The Longest Yard in a World War II setting. Michael Caine is a former soccer player who is a POW in Germany during the War. The Germans think it will be great for their morale if they organize a game pitting the POWs against a German team. They plan to win big to demonstrate Aryan superiority. Caine has to recruit and organize a team from among his fellow prisoners. They include Pele (who scores a goal on a bicycle kick in the big game) and Sylvester Stallone (who is the team goalie). Pele didn't have many lines, but he was featured prominently in the soccer action. Pretty good movie with an interesting ending.