Tributes have continued to pour in following the death of Brazilian football great Pele
Widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, the three-time World Cup winner who masterminded the “beautiful game,” died at the age of 82, his family said Thursday.
Named athlete of the century by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, Pele is the only footballer in history to win three World Cups — 1958, 1962 and 1970.
Nicknamed “O Rei” (The King), he scored more than 1,000 goals in one of the most storied careers in sport, before retiring in 1977.
He had been in increasingly fragile health, battling kidney problems and colon cancer — undergoing surgery for the latter in September 2021, followed by chemotherapy.
