I confess that I had separated another theme to write on this last day of 2022. But how could I write anything else with the death of the King of football?
I am not here to question the mistakes and successes that Edson had in his personal life. I do not know him personally, I do not know his pains and motivations to weave any kind of judgement that I see happening on social networks.
I, a mere sports and football lover, I’m only proud to have been born in the country where the king shone on the pitch, with his touches, passes and goals that marked an era.
Nelson Rodrigues said on 12 July 1958 that after Brazil’s 5-2 thrashing of Sweden everything had changed.
The number 10 stopped being just a number to represent the heaviest shirt in Brazilian football. Brazil was born to the world.
Colours have arrived in Brazil
In the words of Nelson Rodrigues, “the girls on the street, the typists, the shopgirls, the schoolgirls, walk the pavements with a Joan of Arc charm. The people no longer think they are mongrels. Yes, friends – Brazilians have a new image of themselves”.
When I read this passage I wondered: what was Brazil before Pelé? A country just out of the monarchy, which had left slavery behind only a few decades ago.
Who was the black man in Brazil before Pelé? The King really changed everything. Football, once amateurish, was transformed into an art. The poor, especially the blacks, became proud of themselves.
Abroad, Brazil began to be respected. Since then, the Brazilian national team has become one of the best in the world. All this thanks to the great player that he was.
The emotion before the King’s departure
I confess that today I was moved when I saw the headlines of all the newspapers in the world announcing his departure. Pelé was an icon, he occupied the Ministry of Sports during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration and influenced generations.
How many dribblers do we see today that are his creation? Besides this, Pelé also left a social legacy. In Curitiba he sponsored the program “Goals for Life” that raised funds for the Pequeno Príncipe Hospital.
José Álvaro Carneiro, corporate director of the Complexo Pequeno Príncipe once said “In our history there is the King and the Pequeno Príncipe”.
Today not only Brazilian football is in mourning. Not only Santos fans are in mourning. But world football and the supporters of all clubs.
The influence on the children of Brazil
Edson may have been wrong as a person at many moments of his life. But Pelé was unique, a king of the ball, an influence for thousands of poor children in Brazil who are born in the face of the greatest adversity.
Do you know why? Because when someone is born in a favela, without basic sanitation, without government help, without access to education, without access to health care, the only prospect that he has in life for social advancement is to play football like Pelé!
Thank you for everything you have done for football and for Brazil. Without your influence, maybe I wouldn’t believe in my potential to get where I am now!