BRASILIA: Pele, hailed by many as the greatest football player ever, had been struggling with health problems lately. At the 2018 World Cup, he was photographed using a wheelchair. A month later, he was admitted to the hospital after passing out from exhaustion.
He had undergone surgery to remove a tumour from his colon in September 2021 and had been receiving regular medical care ever since, but he had been readmitted to the hospital around the end of 2022. Pele's health did not get any better, and, as his family acknowledged, he remained in the hospital in Sao Paulo throughout the 2022 World Cup and then for Christmas.
Before his passing was officially announced on December 29, Pele's daughter Kely Nascimento had been giving the world regular updates on her father throughout the month as news of his illness spread.
In 1956, Pele made his professional debut for Santos, beginning a career that would fundamentally alter the game. Over the course of the following 21 years, the Brazilian striker would completely change the game of football with his unique style of play and prolific goal-scoring, cementing his reputation as one of the most gifted players to ever step foot on a football field.
Pele made his debut in dramatic fashion at the 1958 World Cup, propelling Brazil to victory while wearing the No. 10 and showcasing a variety of hitherto unseen skills, earning the moniker O Rei (The King) for his exploits. He returned to Mexico in 1962 as unquestionably the best player in the world after scoring a hat-trick against France in the semifinal and a brace against Sweden in the championship match.
Pele won two Copa Libertadores wins and six Brazilian championships over a massive 18-year club career with Santos of Brazil. He then played for the New York Cosmos for his final two years in the lucrative NASL, and for most of the years after his retirement, he served as an ambassador all over the world.
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