Football’s god pele no more

Football’s god pele no more

Pele transcended politics by never ever transcending football. Pele at football, Pele of Brazil, Pele as the greatest, is tattooed on minds in a script of the game that even those who know little to nothing of football, know of.

It’s unimaginable now, but Brazil were once underdogs in football — second best to Uruguay or Argentina. And it had taken the 17-year-old Pele’s bursts of brilliance and dogged inspiration drawn from watching his father weep when Brazil lost the World Cup final, to yank his country out of a sulking sea of under-confidence. After 1958, Pele took Brazil and the blacks and the favela poor out of those miserable times forever. His beautiful game offered them a sense of pride that merely being an economic superpower could never bestow.

The pull of Pele — who died on Thursday at 82 — wasn’t bound by geography. He once paused hostilities in the Nigerian Civil war by getting the federal troops’ chief to open up a bridge so that rebel troops could come watch him play in Lagos. Maybe the greatest Pele legacy was his aura, in a world before not just social media, but even television and the PR machinery. Millions knew of his genius through radio commentary. Then in 1970 millions more bought new TV sets to see “with their own eyes” how magic could unfold. At that World Cup, Pele brought to Latin America an everlasting legacy of being beautiful and creative, which can never be shaken off.

Not everyone liked his politics, but even his detractors dug up reasons to adore his football. Brazil’s president elect Lula da Silva who watched Pele play live at Pacaembu and Morumbi would correct himself saying that he didn’t just watch Pele, but saw him give a show, even when Santos were thrashing Lula’s beloved club, Corinthians. “Because when he got the ball he always did something special, which often ended in a goal. I confess that I was angry with Pelé, because he always massacred my Corinthians on field. But, first and foremost, I admired him.” Pele transcended politics by never ever transcending football. His dashing silhouette, chasing after the ball goal-wards, till it hit the netting, was the YouTube loop everyone knew they needed in life. Pele at football, Pele of Brazil, Pele as the greatest, is tattooed on minds in a script of the game that even those who know little to nothing of football, know of. Flashes of memory of Pele’s goals and even near-goals will always arrive unannounced. Three days of mourning is a mere license to openly cry for the departure of football’s lighthearted, light on his feet, god.