Good bye, soccer king, By Wole Akinyosoye

There is no news anymore that Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the man called Pelé is dead. He was born on October 24, 1940. He died on December 29, 2022 at sunset in the old year.

If life is a football field and death can be dribbled, Pelé will still be alive, kicking and driving, but death is an agent of equal opportunity; it catches up with everyone at the right time, and the world becomes unending.

The concept of death did not seem to children in the 1960s. The future is still green, and death seems only to distant others, people we rarely know. Then we think we know Pelé, the owner of the magical legs that seem to be made for round skin. We fell for the King of the apocryphal tales we always heard about him, and often came to Pelé in football games in the precinct of the church cemetery after school hours. We play complete, a flexible imitation of a leather ball, and we play barefoot. Who could afford football boots in those days?

Pelé was our superman before Superman happened, and many tales spread about his incredible skills on the pitch. We admire his panache and talent for scoring goals. We chat about boots, balls, the game, and, of course, the magic of King Pelé. We know that they live far away in places that cannot be found on the map, but we still feel that they belong to humans.

One legend says that they are the only football team, and they regularly beat all the teams in their region. A trendier story is also circulating about the existing law that prohibits them from taking penalty kicks anywhere in the world. According to folklore, the ban came after a penalty shot from Pelé ripped through the goalkeeper’s stomach. That fatal shot allegedly taught the world not to bother the goalkeeper with a direct shot from the King! I remember the morbid fascination caused by fairy tales, the hapless goalie’s imagination, and the poor underwear in the goal. No one should get a good ending because they miss the goal post. This proves that Pelé is a descendant of the Nephilim, one of the creatures that the Bible says is born “when the sons of God come to the daughters of men.”

I found an enchanting fable for that poem. It represents a larger than life life in a mythic template like DO Fagunwa, the doyen of Yoruba literature whose work forms part of the curriculum text in our primary schools. Pelé’s mythical image failed to fade with age, even after I found the stories to be ticklish. As an adult, the tale became a metaphor for the footballer’s extraordinary exploits. Of course, Pelé is not a Nephilim. He is a man with a passion like ours who seems magical because he plays football like never before. Pelé didn’t invent football, but he did invent Samba, an entertaining genre that transformed the game from a boisterous show of brawn to a sweet, silky symphony on the pitch.

Commenting on the embarrassing trajectory of fame in many careers these days, someone once said that “the best people are the best people.” The best of people merge like candles with the intrusive glare of paparazzi all-inclusive and social media. Even celebrities soon become the subject of tawdry jokes on sex, drugs or dirty lucre. It is a rare sign of greatness that Pelé takes his fame to his grave, especially considering how it happened.

He was in the global spotlight at the World Cup when he was a few years old still on his mother’s skirt and has grown up playing at the top. Pelé would amaze the world in three Mundials, in ’62, ’66 and ’70, to build a myth that lasted a lifetime without traveling the famous slopes, like some celebrities.

Some parodies contrast Pelé’s trajectory with that of Diego Maradona. The young Argentine dribbled into the world’s attention in the 1986 Mundial, emerging as the first reliable replacement for Pelé – despite the crime of England through the “hand of God,” before going down the slippery slope.

“It is difficult for Argentina to find a comparison with me because they cannot define who is the best in Argentina,” Pelé replied in 2010 when asked about Maradona’s rumored succession. King means there are better players in Argentina’s history who don’t deserve to hold a candle to him.

Naturally, Maradona resented the snobbery. “It seems his age affects the way he (Pelé) makes decisions,” he said. (Pelé was 60 years old at the time). “But you can’t blame the man,” said the Argentine, “after 20 years, he doesn’t do anything, he doesn’t even go to the supermarket. The only time we see him is at the award ceremony for FIFA, … although , he looks like a remote-controlled puppet.

Maradona was wrong when he listed Pelé’s qualities as flaws. Pelé wore the crown with dignity, so he earned a reputation that kept him on the stage until his gray years. His cool mien and quiet dignity make him the King of the world. Good understanding also allows them to understand that it is not necessary to show up at every supermarket to prove it. Unfortunately Diego Maradona didn’t see it.

But Pelé is not a saint. He was married three times and serially philandered. He had many children, including one from an unacknowledged housekeeper. But he can shine through the quirks. Humility and wisdom may help keep personal issues at bay. Perhaps because of quirks that seem small to the world accustomed to weightier celebrity misdemeanors.

The search for the greatest football player of all time continues. And who knows what criteria might apply. Players like Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Johan Cruyff, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mpapé may have played with other players yet to be born.

But Pelé will always be in the reckoning.

Wole Akinyosoye, a member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), writes from Bridgetown Barbados.