Pele made all of us want to be Brazilian for a month every four years, he was the complete footballer, says Tim Vickery
PELE'S last lucid days were spent while the World Cup was taking place - which was entirely fitting.
With so many connected to the game gathered in one place, football could send out a message of love and respect to Pele - the man who did more than anyone else to turn the World Cup into the most gripping sporting event on the planet.
Born just 52 years after Brazil abolished slavery, Pele became the undisputed king of the global game - a tribute both to the democratic nature of the sport and to his own extraordinary talent and drive.
He was a machine for playing football, possessed of every technical, tactical and psychological virtue.
Right foot, left foot, headers, acceleration and sustained pace, close control, vision and awareness, strength and impulse, imagination and daring plus huge doses of the great twin motivating factors, pride and fear - Pele had the complete package.
Watching him at his best is like time travel, as if a modern day player, with all the benefits of contemporary physical preparation, had been transported back to show the oldies how it’s done.
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All of this made him a global icon long before football had gone through the globalising process.
He is without doubt the greatest diplomat that Brazil has ever produced.
Pele made all of us want to be Brazilian for a month every four years.
We all wanted to win, to win in style and to win in style with that easy going smile.
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The story takes shape when a nine year old Pele is shocked to see his father in tears as he listens to the radio.
Brazil, still wearing white, let the final of the 1950 World Cup slip and lose 2-1 to Uruguay.
The child promises his father that he will put things right.
Twenty years later, after overcoming Uruguay in the semi final, Brazil beat Italy 4-1 to win the World Cup for the third time.
