Pelé, Brazilian soccer legend, dies at 82

If there was one soccer name American sports fans knew before they knew anything about soccer, it was Pelé. So when he came to the United States to play for the Cosmos in 1975, even people not partial to the sport got the message.

It was there was a place for soccer on the American sports landscape, and that even the greatest player in its history was determined to help see that through.

As much as what he did in other countries, especially his native Brazil, will be part of his legacy, that side trip to the United States still echoes here and will continue to long after his death on Thursday at age 82.

Pelé had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021. The medical center where he had been hospitalized for the last month said he died of multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento — he was named for the inventor Thomas Edison, with Pelé as a childhood nickname — already had won three World Cups with Brazil (in 1958, ’62 and ’70) when he signed with the Cosmos, then a ragtag franchise playing in the ragtag NASL.

That did not last long. Upon retiring from his longtime Brazilian club team, Santos, and arriving in New York during the ‘75 season, he was 34 and past his playing prime, and the Cosmos were playing at Downing Stadium on Randalls Island.

But his celebrity was undiminished, and the Cosmos moved to Yankee Stadium in 1976 and to Giants Stadium in 1977.  Pelé and the rest of the star-studded Cosmos drew enormous crowds and won the NASL title in '77.

A crowd of 77,891 showed up at the Meadowlands for a quarterfinal match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

Pelé's playing days ended on Oct. 1, 1977, with an exhibition match at Giants Stadium in which he played one half with Santos and one with the Cosmos. That attracted a large television audience and a crowd that included a number of celebrities.

Pelé began playing for Santos at 15 and for Brazil at 16, and with his dribbling, passing and shooting skills, he helped turn that country’s flashy style of play into a global sensation, in contrast to the more staid European approach.

He was the youngest player to appear in a World Cup final in 1958. At age 17, he scored two goals as Brazil beat Sweden, 5-2, in Stockholm.

Afterward, Swedish player Sigge Parling said, “When Pelé scored the fifth goal in the final, I have to be honest and say I felt like applauding.”

That was one of dozens of colorful, at times hyperbolic, quotes through the decades attesting to Pelé’s greatness from teammates and opponents.

“Pelé was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic,” Dutch star Johan Cryuff said.

Said Frenchman Just Fontaine, “When I saw Pelé play, it made me feel I should hang up my boots.”

In retirement, Pelé was a businessman, ambassador and humanitarian, and at times he became entangled in political and financial imbroglios.

He was back in New York in 2013 for a news conference re-launching the Cosmos as a member of the 21st century version of the NASL, with him as honorary president. The team played at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium through 2016 before leaving for Brooklyn.

Pelé’s personal life was complicated, including three marriages and assorted other relationships that produced at least seven children.

On a professional level, he is survived by an American soccer scene that was unimaginable in 1975.

Major League Soccer has become a stable enterprise, the World Cup has become a major quadrennial event on the American sports calendar and many sports fans in the U.S. — especially younger ones — have attached themselves to teams in the English Premier League and others overseas.

On that long-ago, rainy October day in New Jersey, Pelé addressed the crowd who came for his retirement this way:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to be here with you in this great moment of my life. I want to thank you all, every single one of you . . . And I want to take this opportunity to ask you in this moment when the world looks to me to pay more attention to the young, the kids, all over the world. We need them too much.

“And I want to ask you, because I believe that love is more important than what we can take in life, everything passes, please say with me three times: Love! Love! And Love!”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.