«If football hadn’t been called that, it should have been called Pelé“. The quote from the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado forms the hook of the tribute paid by The print, in Italy, after the death of the Brazilian legend. Pelé is dead, but Pelé is “immortal” write this Friday the media of the whole world, saluting the Brazilian who died Thursday at 82 years old, the only winner of three World Cups who gave the “football” its hours of glory and letters of nobility. The pictures of «Roi» and the comments are looping on televisions around the world, flooding social networks and engulfing the front pages of newspaper websites.
“Grief” for the ‘immortal king of football’headlines the Brazilian daily The globe on his site, with images of the player in the national jersey, in particular the iconic one, where all smiles, he raises his right arm, worn by his teammate Jairzinho seen from the back with his number 7.
“Pelé is dead, football loses its king”titre The State of S. Pauloa man who according to the Newspaper “showed the power of sport and pushed the boundaries of stardom”. On the website of this Paulista newspaper, Juca Kfouri praises the “best player in history” and quotes the writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987): “It is not difficult to score a thousand goals like Pelé: what is difficult is to score a goal like Pelé”. This journalist, who is an authority in Brazil, concludes his beautiful obituary thus: “No, it’s not true that Pelé is dead. The one who died is Edson. – le prénom d’Edson Arantes do Nascimento, said Pelé.
In Argentina, country of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, who are also applying for the unofficial title of best player of all time, Clarin see in Pelé “the first great football star”and “great among the great” according to Luis Vinker.
“The ball is crying: Pelé is dead”titre olé And the Argentine sports daily is a good player: “Beyond the rivalry that exists between Argentina and Brazil, no one can doubt that Pelé was one of the greatest footballers in history, for many the best beyond Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. What is certain is that he marked an era since his teenage debut, both with Santos and the Brazil national team.
In the United States, a country much less focused on king sport, New York Times refers to the disappearance of “global face of soccer”who “helped popularize the sport in the United States”during his time at Cosmos New York (1975-1977). “Brazil and the world in mourning: there was only one Pelé”recognizes the Washington Post. His sports journalist Liz Clarke writes:He has been nicknamed the king of football, but it is Pelé’s other nickname – the Pérola Negra, or Black Pearl – that best evokes the rare intelligence he contained in his small frame.
22 pages Pelé in the team
It is also this extraordinary talent that Vincent Duluc magnifies in the team (22 special Pelé pages): “Behind the sadness hides the happiness of having seen him play, of having seen him dance, even on old images, and of having seen him give another meaning to the most universal game on the planet”. The editorialist of the French sports daily ends his column with a sigh of “missing” thinking of the Brazilian N.10 and the 1970 World Cup, “he was the greatest, and she was the most beautiful”.
The biggest? This is also the opinion of the French newspaper the world about the “absolute monarch of the round ball”. “O Rei. Just the king. With all of its attributes. His crown, never contested, not even by Cruyff, Platini, Maradona, Zidane, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo”says Bruno Lesprit.
Release, always on the lookout for its front page during the deaths of personalities, offers a surprising photo: we see Pelé on the ground, in shorts and bare-chested, but a long coat placed on the shoulders, and looking back (photo taken in Liverpool in 1966 after a Brazil-Portugal). The title Selection make a play on words (“Selection” et tchao) and the editorial by Paul Quinio, titled “Forever the first», likes to imagine Pelé completing a “Fantastic Four Gang” with Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff and George Best: “They are so different, they probably wouldn’t have gotten along down here, in a locker room, but the joy, the fire, the tactics, the alcohol, mix where they are now in an extraterrestrial, almost childlike harmony” .
So the biggest? “Pelé was better than Messi, Maradona and Ronaldo together“says Alfred Draxler, sports editor of the German tabloid Bild. The time, still in Germany, recalls that Pelé “started barefoot on the streets of Bauru and became the footballer of the century”.
“Pelé, world football in four letters”
‘I thought Messi was the best of all time, but now I realize it’s Pelé’assures John Carlin, of the British The Times. Richard Williams, du Guardianretains “joy” which came from Pelé: “The world’s first footballing superstar put a smile on everyone’s face and his sleight of hand was never meant to put his opponents down.”
Similar tone in Spain, where The country famous “Pelé, world football in four letters”. The vanguard evoked “the last great legend of world football”, and Marca highlights on its site the portrait of the young Pelé with a crown on his head, the years 1940 and 2022, and a black border, the color of mourning. The sports daily also links the video “which shows that all the great actions of Cruyff, Zidane, Messi… Pelé had already invented them”.
The world recalls “the two most beautiful goals in history“, regretting that we “cannot see them” for lack of any video recording: a goal in 1959, after four shots from the sombrero, and another in 1961, when Pelé receives the ball in front of his surface, eliminates seven opponents and scores his goal.