Pelé dies at the age of 82: goodbye to the greatest of Brazilian football

Brazilian former futbol player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Skin, has died this Thursday, December 29 at the age of 82 after a month of hospitalization in Sao Paulo and after having to be treated for palliative care. His state of health worsened especially in recent days due to the advanced stage of his cancer.

The former striker, three-time world champion with the ‘Canarinha’, had been admitted to the Albert Einstein Hospital in the city of Sao Paulo since last November 29 and his state of health worsened as the days went by, despite the fact that both he like his family they tried to send reassuring messages.

His daughter Kely has given the news of the death with a brief and sad message on her Instagram profile, with a photo of the soccer star’s hands joined with those of the rest of his family: “Everything we are is thanks to you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace.”

In total he had seven recognized children and was married up to three times. With Rosemeri Cholbi married in 1966. They were together 16 years. To the psychologist and singer Assiria Seixas Lemos He said ‘yes, I want’ in 1994, when he was 53 years old. That marriage lasted 14 years. With his third and last wife, the businesswoman Marcia Aoki56, married in 2016. This Thursday she has sadly become his widow.

‘O Rei’, as he was known, had to undergo surgery in October 2021 to have a colon tumor removed and since then he had had to visit his doctors regularly to receive chemotherapy and have more than one admission. in intensive care. In addition, at the beginning of 2022 it was reported that he suffered from metastases.

Pelé was admitted at the end of November and it was his daughter Kely do Nascimento who denied the first news that he had been transferred to palliative care at the center. The former player himself, in his official ‘Instagram’ profile, also assured that his presence at Albert Einstein was due to his “monthly visit”.

The hospital clarified that the admission of ‘Pelé’ was due to a rejection of his chemotherapy treatment and the first medical reports of those days were encouraging for the former Santos FC player, whose state of health remained “stable” despite having suffered respiratory infections.

“He is sick, he is older, but as soon as he feels better he will go home,” Kely do Nascimento said then, while his sister Flavia reiterated that the Brazilian soccer star was not in palliative care. “It is very unfair that it is said that he is in the end of his life and in palliative care. He is not true friends, believe us,” she said.

Despite everything, the Brazilian could not be discharged and on December 21 it was reported that he had suffered a worsening in his state of health after “presenting progression of the oncological disease” and requiring “greater care related to renal and cardiac dysfunctions”. .

The only three-time world champion and in the fight of the best in history

Finally, Pelé could not overcome this delicate situation and passed away this Thursday, leaving football an orphan of one of its greatest myths and legends, the only footballer in history who can boast of being champion in three World Cups.

Pelé signed 77 goals in 92 games with his team, still being the top scorer although equaled by Neymar Jr in the recent World Cup in Qatar, while at the club level, the forward played practically his entire career at Santos in his country, where he was from 1956 to 1974, scoring a record 643 goals in 659 games and being champion twice of the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup (1962 and 1963), in addition to six league titles.

The Brazilian ended his career playing three seasons for the American New York Cosmos until his retirement in 1977 and, according to his own account and although there is no official official name, he scored 1,283 goals in his career, although the figure would be significantly lower, with 643 with the Saints.

Pelé is considered one of the best players in the history of football, a throne in which he rivaled hard and, on many occasions, in a dialectical way, with the Argentine Diego Armando Maradonawith whom he finally managed to soften his relationship to maintain mutual admiration until the death of ‘Pelusa’ in 2020.