By Brighton Zimidzi
Zimbabweans from across the sporting fraternity have reacted to the passing away of legendary Brazilian soccer player, Pele who lost the battle against cancer aged 82 at Albert Einstein Hospital in the South side of Sao Paulo, South America on Thursday.
Some call him the greatest of all time and indeed he is. No disrespect to the late Diego Maradona (Argentina), Christiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and the man of the moment Lionel Messi (Argentina).
“Soccer players used to call themselves ‘Pele’, as we grew up. It was known that the best players in the local teams were entitled to wearing the jersey number 10, as Pele had made it iconic. I also remember reading a shona book titled ‘Pele Mambo Webhora (Pele the king of football). He had a very huge impact on football, not only in Zimbabwe but globally”, said Sakhelene Nxumalo, a former Caps united player, East Rovers coach and football commentator.
Pele is the only player in history to win three world cups and the first of it was when he was only aged 17. He scored 77 goals in 92 matches.
A message from Pele’s official twitter account read: “Inspiration and love marked the journey of king Pele, who peacefully passed away today. Love, love and love, forever.”
“The world must take a bow for one of the greatest footballers ever. It is notable that after Jesse Owens exploits in the 1936 olympics, for the first time a black sports person took to the podium against white supremacy. Pele who is Brazilian made black people get recognition for the talent they have. The world has indeed lost a great sports personality. “
Said one of the journalists in the country known for having depth in terms of football knowledge (past and present), veteran former Chronicle sports editor Lovemore Dube.
Former S.FM, ZBC News, ZTV, Skyz Metro and Keyona TV sports producer Lee Mangena said even though he was not exposed to Pele, he still believes Pele is the best.
“My first encounter with Pele was on the big screen, back in the day when television penetration in the country was at best 30%. I grew up in a railway compound called West-gate in which we got a healthy diet of big screen movies and one of them was about Pele”, added Mangena.
“Thereafter i took in volumes and volumes of literature on Edson Arantes do Nascimento Aka Pele and in later years i was fortunate to find videos of this great man. The king is dead”.
Since retiring, Pele continued to be lauded by players, coaches, journalists and others. Brazilian attacking midfielder Zico, who represented Brazil at three world cups stated that the debate about the player of the century is absurd, there is only one possible answer which is Pele.
“Pele turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to the blacks and especially visibility to Brazil”, said Neymar the Brazilian forward as his way to pay tribute to the late icon.
O jogo bonito is a nickname for association football Pele leaves with us. He may have not invented it for all we know Stuart Hall and an English football commentator used it as far back as 1958. O jogo bonito (The beautiful game), this phrase was truely popularised by Pele.
PELE’S CAREER IN NUMBERS
-Won three World cup titles with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970
-Became the youngest- ever player to win the World Cup trophy at 17, a record that still stands
-Scored 757 goals in 812 official matches for club and country, a record that stood for decades until Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo eclipsed his tally.
Brazil football association (CBF) and Santos say Pele scored a total of 1, 283 goals in 1, 367 matches while FIFA pugs ghe figure at 1, 281 goals in 1,366 games.
-Netted 77 goals in 92 official matches for Brazil
-Scored 12 goals in World Cups.
-Registered six assists at Mexico 1970, a record for one world cup.
-Scored 92 hat tricks across official and unofficial games.
-Scored 127 goals for Santos in 1959, thought to be the most goals scored by a club player in one calendar year.
-Finished as Santos top scorer with 643 goals in 659 competitive matches.
-Won Brazils serie A six times with Santos (1961, 1965 and 1968)