Pele is Gone; But Never Forgotten, Always Influential

    Pele, a man who excelled in the game of futbol (soccer) like few players ever have, has passed away this weekend of the new year 2023 at age 82. He had been noticeably suffering from cancer the last month plus during the World Cup in Qatar. Pele is his nickname: like many great Brazilian players he is known only by that; I have heard at least three different pronunciations of it. I tend to go with what I heard as a kid in the 1970s. PAY-LAY. With accent on the first syllable.

    In my college town as a kid many of my cohorts talked about or were cognizant of him. We were six, seven, eight years old. Many of us played on group soccer teams. I did for two or three years. I was on the Bobcats. My dad helped with some coaching. He was a stickler for kids staying in their positions, which influenced how I approached the game. It made me more passive about it, and by fourth grade I cared more about American football than soccer. But I still played a few more times in my teens, perhaps more in my twenties with a few friends, and I have followed the Indiana college men's team and the World Cup every four years.

    I watch a lot of sports; soccer takes up a smaller percentage of it for me. For others, it is very consuming. Many Americans follow it in very small fashions. Whatever the case, Pele made soccer more popular in the United States. We had at least one boy with a Pele metal lunch box back in the 70s. Pele joined a U.S. pro team, bringing more attention to the game in the United States in the mid 1970s. The MLS came into play in the 1990s, after these semi-pro leagues of decades earlier.

    Pele helped win the World Cup three out of four times: 1958 (before the U.S. Vietnam War), 1966 and 1970. Never been done before or since by one player. Brazil is always a big competitor in each World Cup. They have had big one-named players since. They win the whole thing as often as any other country. They won it in 1994 in the United States, the first one that I paid closer attention to, or that I was able to watch. Brazil last won it all in 2002, now over two decades ago. Five times in the lifetime of this football giant, Pele still owns the majority of the three.

    Only two players have compared with being considered the greatest of all time, both from Argentina: Maradona and Messi. Neither of those players won three World Cups.

    It is hard to claim that anyone was ever better than Pele. Or more influential. I think he will be hailed as the best forever. And certainly he came before the others, so he will be the most influential on the world stage.

    From what I know, he was a kind and gracious person. God bless the legacy of Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

    Two other influential people have died this last weekend of 2022. Ratzinger and Walters. Some of my perspective on them coming up.