Pele is dead, but Pele is “immortal”: media around the world pay tribute to the legendary Brazilian who died Thursday at the age of 82, who gave “Futibole” its glory hours and speeches to the nobility.
Photos of the “king” and comments are splashing on television screens around the world, flooding social networks and swallowing the front pages of newspaper websites before they are published.
“Mourning” for the “immortal King of Football”, headlines Brazilian daily O Globo on its website, with pictures of the player in the national jersey, particularly the iconic one, as everyone smiles, raises his right arm, carries him looking at teammate Jairzinho from behind with his number 7.
“Pelé is dead, Futbol loses its own”, headlines O Estado de S. Paulo, the man who according to Folha de São Paulo “showed the power of sport and pushed the boundaries of fame”.
“The one who died is Edson.”
On the website of this Paulista newspaper, Juka Kfoury hailed “the best player in history” and quoted writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987): “It is not difficult to score a thousand goals like Pele: what is difficult is to score a goal like Pele”.
This journalist, who enjoys authority in Brazil, concludes his beautiful obituary thus: “No, it is not true that Pele died. The person who died was Edson”—Edson Arantes do Nascimento’s first name, Pele says.
In Argentina, the country of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, who are also claiming the unofficial title of best player of all time, Clarin sees in Pele “the first great soccer star”, “a great among the greats” according to Louis Venker.
“The ball is crying: Pele is dead” Title Olé. And the Argentine daily sports newspaper Good Player: “Other than the rivalry that exists between Argentina and Brazil, no one can doubt that Pele was one of the greatest footballers in history, for many. Beyond Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. What is certain is that he witnessed an era since His debut as a teenager, whether with Santos or with the Brazil national team.”
Carried by his teammates, shirtless and wearing a sombrero, the Mexican press in Latin America still favors the image of Rey celebrating his third world title in 1970, at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. “Football in Mourning” is the title of El Universal. In Ecuador, El Universo de Guayaquil says “Farewell to Pelé, the super + soccer player”.
“the greatest” and “the most beautiful”
In the United States, a country less focused on the King’s sport, The New York Times evokes the disappearance of the “global face of soccer,” who “helped popularize the sport in the United States,” during its visit to the new Cosmos. York (1975-1977).
“Brazil and the world are in mourning: there was only one Pele,” admitted The Washington Post, writing on its website sports journalist Liz Clark: “We called him the king of football, but it’s Pele’s other nickname – + Pérola Negra +, or Black Pearl — which best evokes the rare intelligence they contained in their small frame.
22 private pages in L’Equipe
It is also this extraordinary talent that Vincent Duloc amplifies in L’Equipe (22 p. Pelé private): “Behind the sadness hides the happiness of seeing him play, of seeing him dancing, even to old pictures, and of seeing him give another meaning to the most universal game on the planet.”
The editorial writer for the French daily Sport ends his column with a sigh from Saud, thinking of the No. 10 Brazilian 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 Le Monde about the “absolute monarch of the round ball”. “Oh Ray. The king, quite simply. With all his attributes. His crown, he has not been contested by anyone, not even by Cruyff, Platini, Maradona, Zidane, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo,” Bruno Lespert advances.
This article is automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
