Epitome of greatness

How will the world remember Pelé? Certainly, as the greatest player of the most popular sport on the Earth! Also, his unparalleled greatness represents a nation that worships football as no other country does. Being a national hero of a football-loving country like Brazil — long after bidding adieu to the football ground — speaks of his majestic influence. It is an uncontested fact that Pelé's influence was at a global scale. After seeing him play in an exhibition match, conflict-ridden Nigeria had announced a temporary ceasefire to a war. Legendary Pelé, along with his teammates, had stopped a war then, literally! Pelé's greatness stems from two aspects — his ahead-of-time footballing skills and his child-like smile that was meant to cover the hard times that had shaped the prodigy he was. The sheer humility with which Pelé would credit God for everything, before anything else, spoke of the depth of his greatness. Born in 1940 when Brazil was still struggling to get out of the shackles of slavery and racism, Edson Arantes do Nascimento (or the world's beloved Pelé), would initially play in the muddy lanes of the south-west of Minas Gerais state. His first mentor was his father whose footballing career was cut short due to an injury. Pelé's father would train him hard with balls made of fruits or rags. Was Pelé God-gifted, or had he excelled purely on account of his hard work and perseverance? Most certainly, he was a rare blend of the two. Numbers do speak of his greatness. The world celebrated Lionel Messi like anything for his first-ever World Cup victory. Pelé did it three times in his four attempts — the first coming at the tender age of 17 in 1958. Picked fresh from a professional club named Santos, Edson Arantes do Nascimento scored six goals in four matches during that World Cup. No player, other than Pelé, has ever been part of three World Cup final victories, and he was key to all those victories. In the 14 World Cup games he played, Pelé scored 12 goals and made eight assists, which is simply phenomenal. His towering record of scoring 1,279 goals in 1,363 matches will take some real effort to be broken — certainly, it is not going to happen in the near future. The scale of these numbers is despite the fact that Pelé was largely regarded as a player who would make brilliant passes, and not just focus on scoring goals. His comparison with anyone, including Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona, is not feasible in the first place. He played in a different era than Messi and different circumstances than Maradona and yet displayed the same, if not better, set of skills. Different players have their greatness reserved in different aspects. It can be said with surety that Pelé, with his God-gifted extraordinary skills and pure humility, was the greatest in his own right and doesn't deserve comparison with any other footballer. His game and his character have set a class that can be replicated but not surpassed. Pelé shaped football — both in Brazil and globally — in its primitive phase. No one could have summed it more succinctly than star Brazilian footballer Neymar. In an emotional message, he said: "I would say before Pelé football was just a sport. Pelé has changed it all. He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave voice to the poor, to the blacks and especially: He gave visibility to Brazil. Soccer and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He's gone but his magic remains. Pelé is FOREVER!!" Pelé's life beyond soccer, in politics and ambassadorship, presented an altogether different example. While he was living, Pelé commanded great respect and acceptability globally. If there is anything that can gauge his greatness in the true sense of the term, it was the reverence he earned worldwide. Rising from the muddy lanes of Minas Gerais state, the legendary footballer conquered hearts the world over with his single name! Now perhaps is the time for him to rest in peace while those who admire and adore him weep on the seemingly incomplete Earth, without him.