BRASILIA-(MaraviPost)-Brazilian football icon ,Edson Arantes do Nascimento ,popularly known as Pele ,has died following a long battle with cancer.
The family of the 82-year-old three-time World Cup winner made the announcement on his official social media pages on Thursday, December 29, 2022.
“Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pelé, who peacefully passed away today,” said the family in a brief statement issued on the legend’s Twitter page.
Born October 23, 1940, in the southeastern city of Três Corações, Pelé’s was named after a famed US inventor Thomas Edison before given the nickname Pelé, for his mispronunciation of Bile, the name of a goalkeeper at Vasco de São Lourenço, where his footballer father once played.
He started playing professional football at the age of 15 with Santos and he led the club to a flurry of titles, including back-to-back Intercontinental Cups, against Benfica in 1962 and AC Milan in 1963.
Known for his genius with the ball, he epitomized the sublime style of play called “samba football” in Brazil, where he was declared a “national treasure.”
He scored an all-time record of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches for Santos (1956-74), the Brazilian national team, and the New York Cosmos (1975-77).
In 1999, Pele was named the athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee and he remained the only footballer in history to win three World Cups — 1958, 1962 and 1970.
Over the last couple of years, the fallen hero had been battling with his health and his public appearances had grown increasingly rare, as he was frequently spotted using a walker or wheelchair, ABC reported.
Before his demise, he had been hospitalised several times for urinary infections and in 2021 and 2022, he remained in hospital for some time for colon cancer.
Tributes have been poured from all over the world and football fanatics have eulogized the football icon as the greatest of all times in football history.
He is survived by two daughters who were born out of wedlock and five children from his first two marriages, to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi and Assiria Seixas Lemos as well as the businesswoman Marcia Cibele Aoki.