RIP Pelé, 1940-2022

[G-Fafif]

[metirish]

Rest in peace , surely one of the most beloved athletes of all time

[Edgy MD]

Take that, physics.

[Frayed Knot]

I can't get into that position on the ground much less 3 ft aloft.

[smg58]

Take that, physics.

As a physics professor, I would argue that Pelé understood physics at a different level. Basically it's Einstein, then Newton, then Pelé. But Pelé was much better at applying the laws of physics than the other two.

[whippoorwill]

I can't get into that position on the ground much less 3 ft aloft.

Lol. Maybe I could with both legs bent

[MFS62]

The first athlete I remember being known by only one name. Not sure if stage performers such as Cher or Madonna did it earlier.
He gave his sport panache as well as performance and introduced his sport to many Americans who wouldn't have considered watching it before him.
Later

[Edgy MD]

There are two schools of thought on him. One is that he's unimpeachably the best ever, and the other is that he's not quite all that because he stayed away from the European Leagues for the most part.

But even the most cynical of the latter group would likely never put him below fifth-best all-time. I mean, Europe Shmeurope — his World Cup performance record is still unapproached. And he's still the reason why every Brazilian player plays the way they do.

My school of thought is that if I'm playing a game for my life, I want Pelé, Michael Caine, and Sylvester Stallone on my side.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Liberace was a one name performer before Cher and Madonna.

[kcmets]

Michael Caine? Sylvester Stallone?

[kcmets]

RIP to the The Great Pelé, certainly one of the top five recognizable
world-wide figures of my lifetime.

[Frayed Knot]

The first athlete I remember being known by only one name. Not sure if stage performers such as Cher or Madonna did it earlier.

Pele (Edson* Arantes do Nascimento) was Pele before Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono was known as just Cher, and Pele was Pele before Madonna was even born.


* Named, I only recently found out, for Thomas Edison (with a slight spelling change).

[Edgy MD]

Michael Caine? Sylvester Stallone?

[smg58]

Michael Caine? Sylvester Stallone?

You must be a lot younger than Edgy and I are.

[kcmets]

Never saw it. Seems like an odd trio. Not a Stallone guy, Rocky l and
Rambo 1 are really the only two movies of his I've managed to get through
from start to finish.

[Edgy MD]

As a John Huston war movie, it's pretty out of character for him. But as an underdog sports movie, not really at all. It wasn't well received, but like most John Huston movies, people eventually looked back on it and appreciated more in retrospect. Outside of Caine and Stallone, the rest of the soccer player are played by world-class pros, most of them closer to their prime than Pelé was. Based on a true (though highly mythologized) story of a Ukranian team who took on the Nazis during occupation.




Here's a clip from another underdog sports film from the eighties.

[G-Fafif]

Really nice piece in The Athletic gathering reminiscences of those who knew Pelé from his time in America (the North one).

In 1979, not long after Pelé hung up his boots for good, Ramirez was approached by Mazzei — probably Pelé’s closest confidant — to gauge his interest in helping Pelé found a soccer camp. Though Pelé never expressed much interest in professional coaching, he remained committed to the idea of growing the game, that lofty ideal that had drawn him Stateside to begin with. A summer camp, Pelé thought, might be the most direct way to leave an impression on a future generation of players.

Arrangements were made and in 1979, Pelé’s first-ever camp became a reality. A few weeks prior to opening day, Pelé, Ramirez and others met with the president of Manhattanville College, who assumed Pelé would simply show up for a day or two and then jet off to another locale. He was shocked to find out that he intended to stay for the duration of the camp, and offered him the nicest lodging the college had — the guest house.

“Pelé said ‘No, no, no. I want to be with the coaches and the kids,’” says Ramirez. “‘I want to live in the dorms, just like the kids.’ And that’s what we did. He was there every day. The only time he came late was when he was in Hungary filming ‘Victory.’ He arrived two days late that year. But Pelé was deeply involved in the camp all the time.”

The camp was split into four groups. The Little Pelés were the youngest. Then came the Dicos, who got their name from Pelé’s childhood nickname. The Edsons, Pelé’s birth name, were the 13- and 14-year-olds. And the oldest group were simply the Pelés.

https://theathletic.com/4051181/2023/01 ... s-america/

[Edgy MD]

Pelé's remains being transported through Santos on a fire truck.



That's a lotta bad cellphone photos people are getting.

Improbably, he has been survived by his 100-year-old mother.

[metirish]

A lack of respect

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... nt-show-up