Brazilian football legend Pelé, arguably the greatest player ever, has died at the age of eighty two. He is credited with scoring a world record twelve hundred and eighty one goals in thirteen hundred and sixty three appearances during a twenty one-year career, including seventy seven goals in ninety two matches for his country. A few of them were a bit good. The only player to win the World Cup three times, being part of the Brazil squads when they won the trophy in 1958, 1962 and 1970 (although he missed the 1962 final through injury), Pelé was named as FIFA's Player of the Century in 2000. He had been suffering with kidney and prostate problems in recent years. Pelé had surgery to remove a tumour from his colon in September 2021 at the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, after the tumour was detected during routine tests. He was readmitted to hospital in late November 2022. His daughter Kely Nascimento has kept fans updated on her father's condition with regular social media updates from hospital. On Thursday she posted a picture of what appeared to be Pelé's family's hands on his body in hospital and wrote: 'Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace.' Pelé was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento in October 1940, in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, the son of Fluminense footballer Dondinho (João Ramos do Nascimento) and Celeste Arantes. He grew up in poverty in Bauru, São Paulo and earned money for his family by working in tea shops. Taught to play by his father, he could not afford a proper football and usually played with either a sock stuffed with newspaper and tied with string, or a grapefruit. He made his debut for Santos FC in 1956 and was in the national side a year later as a seventeen year old. After the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, wealthy European clubs, such as Real Madrid, Juventus and The Scum, tried to sign him. In 1958, Inter Milan even managed to do so, but Angelo Moratti was forced to tear the contract up at the request of Santos' chairman following a revolt by Santos' fans. He would remain at Santos until 1974. He then came out of retirement and enjoyed three seasons - and celebrity status - playing for New York Cosmos in the late 1970s. He also appeared in Escape To Victory (1981) but we can probably forgive him for that. In 1970, Pelé was investigated by Brazil's military dictatorship for suspected leftist sympathies. Declassified documents showed Pelé was investigated after being handed a manifesto calling for the release of political prisoners. Pelé did not get further involved with political struggles in the country after that. Among the most successful and popular sporting figures of the Twentieth Century, Pelé was one of the most lauded players in the history of football and was frequently ranked as the best player ever. Following his emergence at the 1958 World Cup he was nicknamed O Rei ('The King'). Among his contemporaries, Dutch star Johan Cruyff (in this blogger's opinion, the only player who could push Pelé close to the title of the world's greatest player) stated, 'Pelé was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic.' Brazil's 1970 World Cup-winning captain, Carlos Alberto opined: 'His great secret was improvisation. Those things he did were in one moment. He had an extraordinary perception of the game.' According to Tostão, his strike partner at the 1970 World Cup: 'Pelé was the greatest - he was simply flawless. And off the pitch he is always smiling and upbeat. You never see him bad-tempered. He loves being Pelé.' Another Brazil teammate, Clodoaldo, commented on the adulation he witnessed: 'In some countries they wanted to touch him, in some they wanted to kiss him. In others they even kissed the ground he walked on. I thought it was beautiful.' According to Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany's 1974 World Cup-winning captain: Pelé was 'the greatest player of all time. He reigned supreme for twenty years. There's no one to compare with him.' Former Real Madrid and Hungary star Ferenc Puskás stated: 'The greatest player in history was [Alberto] Di Stéfano. I refuse to classify Pelé as a player. He was above that.' Just Fontaine, French striker and leading scorer at the 1958 World Cup said 'When I saw Pelé play, it made me feel I should hang up my boots.' England's Bobby Moore commented: 'Pelé was the most complete player I've ever seen, he had everything. Two good feet. Magic in the air. Quick. Powerful. Could beat people with skill. Could outrun people. Only five feet and eight inches tall, yet he seemed a giant of an athlete on the pitch. Perfect balance and impossible vision. He was the greatest because he could do anything and everything on a football pitch. I remember Saldanha the coach being asked by a Brazilian journalist who was the best goalkeeper in his squad. He said Pelé. The man could play in any position.' Sir Bobby Charlton added: 'I sometimes feel as though football was invented for this magical player.' During the 1970 World Cup, when Paddy Crerand (who was part of the ITV panel) was asked, 'How do you spell Pelé?', he replied, Easy: 'G-O-D.' Pelé was also known to be a fair player, who stood out for his charismatic leadership and sportsmanship on the pitch. His warm embrace of Bobby Moore following the Brazil's narrow victory over England at the 1970 World Cup is viewed as the embodiment of sportsmanship, with the New York Times stating the image 'captured the respect that two great players had for each other. As they exchanged jerseys, touches and looks, the sportsmanship between them is all in the image. No gloating, no fist-pumping from Pelé. No despair, no defeatism from Bobby Moore.' In his early career, he played in a variety of attacking positions. Although he usually operated as a centre forward, his wide range of skills also allowed him to play in a more withdrawn role. In his later career, he took on more of a deeper playmaking role behind the strikers, often functioning as, effectively, an attacking midfielder. Pelé's unique playing style combined speed, creativity and technical skill with physical power, stamina and athleticism. His excellent technique, balance, flair, agility and dribbling skills enabled him to beat opponents with the ball and frequently saw him use sudden changes of direction and elaborate feints in order to get past players. It's a largely forgotten football fact that Pelé even once played against this blogger's beloved Magpies. The game came when Newcastle embarked on a four-match tour of the Far East. The date was 4 June 1972 at the Happy Valley stadium in Hong Kong and the match was between United and Santos. Pelé, was then thirty one and the game came two years after Brazil's triumph in Mexico and a year after he had retired from international football, but the man in the number ten shirt could still pack a mighty punch. Former Toon full-back Frankie Clark recalled the game: 'We were two-one up at half-time. We were the better team before the break, but it was a different matter after half-time. Pelé suddenly decided to turn it on. He scored three fantastic goals in about fifteen minutes. After that, he went off .. we lost four-two but it was a great experience being on the same pitch as the world's best player.' Presenting Pelé with the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award, former South African president Nelson Mandela said, 'To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man in full.' Andy Warhol (who painted a portrait of Pelé) said 'Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory: instead of fifteen minutes of fame, he will have fifteen centuries.' After retirement he became a global ambassador for the game and a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. He dabbled, briefly, in politics (he was Brazil's minister of sport for two years in the 1990s). He assisted Rio's bid for the 2016 Olympics and supported various charitable causes, such as Action for Brazil's Children, Gols Pela Vida, SOS Children's Villages, The Littlest Lamb, Prince's Rainforests Project and others. Married three times, he fathered seven children.
'It's funny what a difference in sport a year can make'. This blogger's beloved (and now, mercifully, sold) Magpies cruised past Leicester City with three first-half goals to claim a sixth consecutive Premier League win and move up to second in the table in the Boxing Day clash. Just to remind anyone that may have forgotten, on the day after Boxing Day 2021, The Magpies drew one-all with The Scum at St James' Park and, after nineteen matches they sat second bottom of The Premier League with but eleven points and only one win and with relegation to The Championship looking a racing certainty. Things have improved, somewhat, since then. Chris Wood kick-started a dominant performance by smashing the opener from the penalty spot before Miguel Almirón glided past the Leicester defence to tuck away the second. Joelinton headed the third from a Kieran Trippier corner for his second goal of the season as The Magpies demonstrated the clinical edge that the hosts were missing. With England midfielder James Maddison out of the Leicester squad, as he continued to recover from a knee issue sustained before the World Cup, Brendan Rodgers' side were toothless in attack and dodgy in defence. Jamie Vardy (you know, Rebekah's husband) was introduced off the bench to add pace to The Foxes' attack in the second half and he managed to get in down the side on a couple of occasions but there was no blue shirt to meet his crosses. The Magpies are four points behind leaders The Arse, who have played two fewer games. Leicester - who registered just two tame efforts on target in the final ten minutes - remain thirteenth. Newcastle were the form team in the Premier League before the World Cup break, having recorded successive wins over Everton, Stottingtot Hotshots, Aston Villains, Southampton and The Club Formerly Known As Moscow Chelski FC. England forward Callum Wilson was missing from the matchday squad because of illness, but the match could not have started better for the visitors as Joelinton was brought down inside the area by a swipe of Daniel Amartey's leg with only a minute on the clock. Wood drilled the ball down the middle to beat goalkeeper Danny Ward and open the scoring. Leicester's defence lacked an intensity in the absence of the experienced Jonny Evans, and Almirón was the beneficiary for the second as he glided past the blue shirts after a sweeping move involving Trippier and Bruno Guimarães to open up his body and find the far corner with a finish he practised so diligently in the warm-up. The game was over as a contest before the interval when Joelinton was rewarded for his endeavour with a powerful headed goal as he completely lost marker Youri Tielemans. Leicester failed to produced their first shot on target until the eighty second minute, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's tame effort failing to trouble goalkeeper Nick Pope. The hosts will be hoping for playmaker Maddison to return from his knee injury quickly as they seek to move up the table in the weeks ahead. Th' Toon's next game is at home to Dirty Leeds United on New Year's Eve.
