Edson Arantes do Nascimento (known as Pelé) died on December 29, 2022 at the age of 82 from colon cancer at the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo. He was born in Três Corações (Brazil) on October 23, 1940. Historical player of Santos Club (1956-1974), then in the New York Cosmos (1975-1977), ace of the Brazilian national soccer team (1957-1971), with which he won three world championships (1958, 1962, 1970).
His name, Edson, was chosen by his father, the soccer player João Ramos do Nascimento (called Dondinho), because in those days electricity had arrived in the town of Três Corações (Three Hearts) in south-eastern Brazil, and therefore it was to honor Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb.
On the origin of the nickname “Pele” there are several versions. Originally they called him “Dico,” then “Gasolina,” and finally “Pelé” due to the fact that as a young man he called his goalkeeper “Bilé,” or it was because he played with the “pelada”, a ball of rags as his family was very poor. The father, João Ramos, worked as cleaner at Bauru hospital, and Dico helped by being a shoe shiner. João was also a decent player with Bauru’s team.
Pelé was 1.73 m. tall, stocky and powerful, but at the same time agile and relaxed. He kicked with both his left and right foot, and always aiming.
There were numerous relationships and three marriages (the last one in 2016, with Marcia Aoki, a woman over 30 years younger, his current wife). Three children from Rosemeri, his first wife (two girls and a boy, Edinho, a goalkeeper and then coach, sentenced in 2017 to 12 years and 10 months in prison for laundering money from drug trafficking); two twins from Assiria, his second wife (a girl and a boy, Joshua, also a footballer), and at least two other daughters by as many women.
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