Pele - moved to end of life care

[Weezertron]

I was thinking the other day how it's crazy he is still around, not because of age or anything, but as someone too young to have seen him play - Pele just seems like a mythical character, that isn't of this earth. I have to remember he is still here. Be sad when he goes, but he'll be up there with the likes of Ali in sporting history. 

[dorty]

Legend. I can remember as far back as the early 70s and he was always the greatest.

[frankpingel]

Used to get shown a film of the 1970 World Cup at school sometimes. Still remember watching it in awe. We also got the 1966 one but I recall thinking Brazil was how to do it properly. Pele was forefront of the teams success.

Pele and Ali were the 1st recognisable worldwide sporting figures. They remain my favourites. 

[Sima]

Awful news.  Hopefully it’s a painless as possible.

[madras]

3 minutes ago, frankpingel said:

Used to get shown a film of the 1970 World Cup at school sometimes. Still remember watching it in awe. We also got the 1966 one but I recall thinking Brazil was how to do it properly. Pele was forefront of the teams success.

Pele and Ali were the 1st recognisable worldwide sporting figures. They remain my favourites. 

The official world cup film for 1970 is fantastic. Bound to be on YT or easily streamed.

 

I saw an art work once that was a TV with Brazils 4th goal in the final, from when Italy have the ball to Brazil winning it.......on a loop, I was transfixed.

[Unlucky Luque]

Obviously knew he was the best, but never really looked into his numbers before now. Absolutely ridiculous

[Vinny Green Balls]

FFS. Always a fixture in our lives. My dad was fortunate enough to go to see him play  a few times  in the mid 70’s when he played for the Cosmos.

 

he’ll always be the GOAT how he revolutionized the game. Probably didn’t actually stop a civil war, but he is a hugely important historical figure nonetheless.

[Tsunami]

The greatest. 
 

 

[Tiresias]

 thoughts with his family of course

[Exiled in Texas]

Going out during the World Cup will give him such a great tribute.  Really kinda fitting for him.

[Rafalove]

 

[BGRM]

Oh bad news! In my prayers.

[Big Geordie]

Lineker said on the bbc earlier to say that Pele was stable abs they were re-evaluating his chemo treatment. 

[oldtype]

When I first started watching football in the early 90s, I learned his name before I knew the name of any active non-Korean footballer. Nobody I knew had ever seen him play, but nobody ever doubted that he was the best ever. When I was playing PES all day in high school, I remember him being on the “Classic Brazil” team and being so comically overpowered even relative to the best of that era (Ronaldo/Ronaldinho etc.), but we were all okay with it because… well, he’s Pele. Of course he is. To this day, young Korean men who dominate their Sunday leagues still call themselves the “neighborhood Pele.” I’m sure that’s the case in many other countries as well.

 

It is the lot of all athletes to have their legacies diminished as the generations pass. It’s simply absurd that Pele’s semi-mythical status as the greatest of all time has largely persisted in the popular conscience a half Century after his prime, when the vast majority of humanity has never even seen him play. Michael Jordan is probably the only athlete who can even come close in terms of global cultural influence, but he is of a much more recent vintage. Who knows how much we’ll be talking about MJ in 2050.

 

An objectively better footballer will exist some day, (maybe he already does), but it’s hard to imagine anyone ever having a larger legacy.

[TRon]

His goals from half a century ago still look great today. I think that says everything.

[huss9]

before my time but he should have been at his peak at the 66 world cup.

ive watched the highlights and he actually had his legs snapped multiple times every game. the portugese in particular were bastards.

he would struggle to get up, hobbling, then fucking go and shake the opponents hand and pat them on the back.

true gent.

[huss9]

25 minutes ago, oldtype said:

When I first started watching football in the early 90s, I learned his name before I knew the name of any active non-Korean footballer. Nobody I knew had ever seen him play, but nobody ever doubted that he was the best ever. When I was playing PES all day in high school, I remember him being on the “Classic Brazil” team and being so comically overpowered even relative to the best of that era (Ronaldo/Ronaldinho etc.), but we were all okay with it because… well, he’s Pele. Of course he is. To this day, young Korean men who dominate their Sunday leagues still call themselves the “neighborhood Pele.” I’m sure that’s the case in many other countries as well.

 

It is the lot of all athletes to have their legacies diminished as the generations pass. It’s simply absurd that Pele’s semi-mythical status as the greatest of all time has largely persisted in the popular conscience a half Century after his prime, when the vast majority of humanity has never even seen him play. Michael Jordan is probably the only athlete who can even come close in terms of global cultural influence, but he is of a much more recent vintage. Who knows how much we’ll be talking about MJ in 2050.

 

An objectively better footballer will exist some day, (maybe he already does), but it’s hard to imagine anyone ever having a larger legacy.

i think Pele and Ali have been the only true global sporting icons until Messi and Cronaldo game along.

But Pele and Ali trancended sport.

[TheBrownBottle]

Pele IS football

 

It comes to us all of course, but that doesn’t make it any less sad

[oldtype]

5 minutes ago, huss9 said:

i think Pele and Ali have been the only true global sporting icons until Messi and Cronaldo game along.

But Pele and Ali trancended sport.

Ali is probably on that tier as well. Was only thinking about team sports.

 

Remains to be seen if Messi and Ronaldo stand the test of time in the public conscience. If someone told me when I was a kid that fat Ronaldo wouldn’t even be the most famous footballer named Ronaldo in twenty years, I wouldn’t have believed them. Those two are on another tier in terms of achievements, obviously, but there’s also a lot of recency bias.

[Cronky]

I think he was the first global star of the game, at the dawn of the TV era. 

 

Always hard to compare the greats with one another - Pele, Cruyff, Maradona and Messi - but he was the first.

[huss9]

growing up i  the 70s and 80s, we used to go to pakistan in the summers to see relatives.

even in the remotest villages where there was still was no running water or eletricity at the time, they knew who Pele and Ali were.

didnt even know the rules of footie but the knew Pele (or Peel, as my late uncle used to call him!).

[madras]

2 minutes ago, Cronky said:

I think he was the first global star of the game, at the dawn of the TV era. 

 

Always hard to compare the greats with one another - Pele, Cruyff, Maradona and Messi - but he was the first.

The video posted earlier sums him up for me. He was the first to do that stuff, it wasn't practised, it just seemed to happen. You can imagine those after practising from being kids after seeing Pele do it.

[Cronky]

8 hours ago, madras said:

The video posted earlier sums him up for me. He was the first to do that stuff, it wasn't practised, it just seemed to happen. You can imagine those after practising from being kids after seeing Pele do it.

 

He dominated his era and there was no debate that he was the finest player around at the time.

 

Football was far more brutal at the time, of course. I can remember the 'referees clampdown', some time around the late 60's / early 70s, when there was a flurry of bookings and sending offs. It actually caused an outcry, as though all the courage was being taken out of the game. Even now, you still hear that complaint, ironically.

[Coffee_Johnny]

11 hours ago, Rafalove said:

 

Fantastic montage. 

[huss9]

14 hours ago, Rafalove said:

 

really is a must watch.

cruyff turns, ronaldo chops, knuckleballs, rabonas, bicycle kicks...  the only thing he could never master was the Lauren Robert overhead backheel.