Soccer legend Pelé dies
December 29, 2022 5:43 PM Subscribe
Pelé as a Comedian, from 2010, and The Legend of Pelé, the Brazilian Boy Who Remade Soccer in His Image from about two weeks ago. Both by Brian Phillips.
posted by emmling at 6:03 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by emmling at 6:03 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:05 PM on December 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:05 PM on December 29, 2022 [7 favorites]
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posted by GenjiandProust at 6:14 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:14 PM on December 29, 2022
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posted by May Kasahara at 6:45 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by May Kasahara at 6:45 PM on December 29, 2022
Soccer in the USA wouldn’t be what it is today if Pelé had chosen PSG over the New York Cosmos all those years ago. In Grant Wahl’s recent Good Rivals documentary series on USA vs Mexico, John Harkes and Tab Ramos each referenced the power of having players like Pelé in the Meadowlands had on them personally. I’ll extend that observation to say that his presence is one of a few things that led New Jersey players and coaches to have been so impactful in the sport. And further, having Pelé imprimatur on the NASL is why rec leagues sprung up in places like my small Ohio city and made the sport another serious option among the Big 4 American sports. Pelé gave a lot to North America. He won a World Cup in Mexico and had a huge hand in growing the sport in the US and Canada.
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posted by putzface_dickman at 7:18 PM on December 29, 2022 [10 favorites]
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posted by putzface_dickman at 7:18 PM on December 29, 2022 [10 favorites]
I must’ve watched Pele perform his bicycle kick in the film Victory a hundred times when I was a kid. It was a staple of early 80s HBO.
I have zero shame in admitting that watching that silly movie — and Pele’s shot in particular — made this chubby elementary school kid want to play soccer for a few years.
posted by zooropa at 7:52 PM on December 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
I have zero shame in admitting that watching that silly movie — and Pele’s shot in particular — made this chubby elementary school kid want to play soccer for a few years.
posted by zooropa at 7:52 PM on December 29, 2022 [5 favorites]
I have watched exactly one professional soccer match live. It would have been during the period when Pele was playing for the Cosmos. They were playing the DC area team. I wasn't much into Soccer, but I knew who Pele was. My dad took me to the game. He wasn't into soccer either, but he was into giving us kids experiences. I don't remember who won. I don't remember much about the play. But I do remember that Pele got a yellow card.
posted by Xoc at 8:00 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Xoc at 8:00 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by dannyboybell at 8:07 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by dannyboybell at 8:07 PM on December 29, 2022
I saw him play his final regular game in Portland when my beloved Seattle Sounders were in the Soccer Bowl against the NY Cosmos. The Cosmos had all the money in the world, so they had Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Franz Beckenbauer, amongst others, which was a pretty stellar lineup even if they were all of retirement age. It was an awful game to watch for me, but I was moved to tears when Pelé, great guy that he was, gave his jersey to our hometown kid, who was one of the few really good American players in the NASL at the time (which was largely made up of players from other countries who had aged out of play there). It felt like he'd received a blessing from God, personally come down to watch a soccer match in the Pacific Northwest.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 8:49 PM on December 29, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by kitten kaboodle at 8:49 PM on December 29, 2022 [8 favorites]
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posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:11 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:11 PM on December 29, 2022
Although they can be tedious, I'm actually fond of discussions about 'who was the greatest X...'
This isn't because there's an answer, but because you're basically trying to whittle something enormous, like the history of good soccer players, down to something minute, the 'best' one.
My experience is that these kinds of discussions are like political discussions. Ie, the people having them are rather unlikely to change their view, but they'll reveal a great deal about their values along the way. Also, people are complex and inventive. Even people who are 'wrong' tend to have really nuanced and creative ways to stake their claim. Sometimes the most stalwart are those who have the best analytic arguments, as an example.
I'll say this about Pele, he's got that thing going on that Maradona has, where the ball is basically an extension of one of his joints that he jostles hither and fro because it's actually a part of him.
The other thing I'll mention (tho I don't really know how true it is) is that supposedly he developed his game from a cultural space where he wasn't seeing a lot of the other top players of the time. This is impressive to me because his innovations of movement and ball control are organic. The stuff that top flight players are trying to pawn off as talent decades later was invented by some kid from Três Corações.
Well done
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:26 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
This isn't because there's an answer, but because you're basically trying to whittle something enormous, like the history of good soccer players, down to something minute, the 'best' one.
My experience is that these kinds of discussions are like political discussions. Ie, the people having them are rather unlikely to change their view, but they'll reveal a great deal about their values along the way. Also, people are complex and inventive. Even people who are 'wrong' tend to have really nuanced and creative ways to stake their claim. Sometimes the most stalwart are those who have the best analytic arguments, as an example.
I'll say this about Pele, he's got that thing going on that Maradona has, where the ball is basically an extension of one of his joints that he jostles hither and fro because it's actually a part of him.
The other thing I'll mention (tho I don't really know how true it is) is that supposedly he developed his game from a cultural space where he wasn't seeing a lot of the other top players of the time. This is impressive to me because his innovations of movement and ball control are organic. The stuff that top flight players are trying to pawn off as talent decades later was invented by some kid from Três Corações.
Well done
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:26 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh, also, what Messi's doing is probably more technically difficult and he's being doing it at a high level for longer than Pele. It's not impractical to think that the Argentina win did Pele in.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:29 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:29 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
And even here, the spectre of COVID-19 continues: Pelé got infected as he's receiving cancer treatment.
Please look out for each other. The immunocompromised do their best (vaccinations etc) but it's the overall spread that needs to be kept down.
posted by cendawanita at 10:42 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Please look out for each other. The immunocompromised do their best (vaccinations etc) but it's the overall spread that needs to be kept down.
posted by cendawanita at 10:42 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
The cover of Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo today
Pelé morreu, se é que Pelé morre
posted by chavenet at 1:40 AM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pelé morreu, se é que Pelé morre
posted by chavenet at 1:40 AM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
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I'm too young to have seen Pelé play live, the closest I came was being one of a thousand kids seeing him promote the concept of fair play in Reykjavík when I was ten in 1991. I had read about him in a football history book, written before the 1986 World Cup, when he was still unquestioned as the greatest footballer evs, though if I remember correctly it only called him a two-times winner of the World Cup, which I think was technically true until FIFA retroactively gave squad players world cup winners medals in 2007.
But ten year old me still had no idea who I was watching, because reading about football and seeing the game are two very different things. Now in the YouTube age I've spent many a happy hour watching old match footage of Pelé, and he really seems like no other player. With most greats, your Zidanes, Messis, Maradonas, Cruyffs and Ronaldos, the ball seems like an extension of their body, as fully in their control as one of their limbs. But Pelé plays like the ball is his friend, or his pet, a wilful creature who loves Pelé and just wants to be near him at all times and help him out. It's slightly uncanny, as if the ball just bounces differently when it's near Pelé.
posted by Kattullus at 2:00 AM on December 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm too young to have seen Pelé play live, the closest I came was being one of a thousand kids seeing him promote the concept of fair play in Reykjavík when I was ten in 1991. I had read about him in a football history book, written before the 1986 World Cup, when he was still unquestioned as the greatest footballer evs, though if I remember correctly it only called him a two-times winner of the World Cup, which I think was technically true until FIFA retroactively gave squad players world cup winners medals in 2007.
But ten year old me still had no idea who I was watching, because reading about football and seeing the game are two very different things. Now in the YouTube age I've spent many a happy hour watching old match footage of Pelé, and he really seems like no other player. With most greats, your Zidanes, Messis, Maradonas, Cruyffs and Ronaldos, the ball seems like an extension of their body, as fully in their control as one of their limbs. But Pelé plays like the ball is his friend, or his pet, a wilful creature who loves Pelé and just wants to be near him at all times and help him out. It's slightly uncanny, as if the ball just bounces differently when it's near Pelé.
posted by Kattullus at 2:00 AM on December 30, 2022 [3 favorites]
I attended a tiny primary school in the north east of the UK. It was Catholic. Our head, Sister A, was a nun, fierce but true. A good egg I learnt but terrifying back then. Our football team was crap. We were beaten week in, week out 12-0 or so. One week, at home we lost, 0-17. She cracked. Sacked our coach and took charge. Her tactics weren't great but we looked better - clean boots every game, comb your hair before you go on the field, arrive early, be punctual.... But one move was inspired and designed to inspire. She hired a bus and driver and early one Autumn evening we all set off for Sheffield to watch a soccer match. It was October 1962. The ground was Hillsborough, home of Sheffield Wednesday. The opposition was Santos, the Brazilian champions. Pele played. It didn't work of course. Well, much. We lost 7-0 next game. But it was a memorable night. I was 11. Pele was maybe 17. 60 years ago.
posted by dutchrick at 3:26 AM on December 30, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by dutchrick at 3:26 AM on December 30, 2022 [17 favorites]
"Everything you see your favorite player doing, Pelé did it first": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnHqVfrJZg8
posted by vincebowdren at 4:47 AM on December 30, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by vincebowdren at 4:47 AM on December 30, 2022 [8 favorites]
I played soccer in elementary school and went to a soccer camp where people talked in hushed tones about Pele, one counselor said he'd met him, and I loved Victory.. and I only know positive things, so to me he is like a god. A beautiful symbol present at the dawning of awareness. I did not strive to emulate him or confuse myself with him -- I just wasn't that kind of kid, and I knew my limits, but also I was a defensive player, and so my whole outlook was to crush the dreams of would-be Peles.
Pele is not dead, he is those stars in the sky.
posted by fleacircus at 6:08 AM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pele is not dead, he is those stars in the sky.
posted by fleacircus at 6:08 AM on December 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
I 1st learned about Pelé in the late 70s in a Dynamite article about celebrity nicknames. Iirc he said he didn't know how he got it.
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posted by brujita at 6:19 AM on December 30, 2022
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posted by brujita at 6:19 AM on December 30, 2022
I got to see him play when he was with the Cosmos and even then it was clear he was a remarkable player. rip.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:27 AM on December 30, 2022
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:27 AM on December 30, 2022
The lengthy NYT obit and the piece Pelé radiated the quality of joy: an instant appeal to the eye and heart really show how utterly appropriate it is to describe Pelé as a legend.
RIP
posted by lalochezia at 8:08 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
RIP
posted by lalochezia at 8:08 AM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:32 AM on December 30, 2022
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:32 AM on December 30, 2022
How Pelé brought the beautiful game to the United States
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:35 PM on December 30, 2022
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:35 PM on December 30, 2022
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posted by lock robster at 5:05 PM on December 30, 2022
posted by lock robster at 5:05 PM on December 30, 2022
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