Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known to the world as soccer great Pelé, has
been voted Reuters Sports Personality of the Century, winning the title by
just six points over the runner-up, boxing champion of the world Muhammad
Ali (pictured with Pelé in 1977). Pelé earned the adulation of international
soccer fans as the youthful leader of the Brazilian national team from the
late 1950s to the 1970s, winning three World Cup championships and numerous
personal honors, and bringing a spectacular artistry and intelligence to the
world’s most popular sport. Pelé scored 146 points out of a possible 270 in
the Reuters poll, while Ali followed with 140, and American sprinter/long
jumper Carl Lewis took third place with 94. The two other athletes voted
into the top five were Michael Jordan with 80 points, and gold medalist
Jesse Owens with 49.
Reuters reported that fifty-four sports editors and journalists from 35
countries ranked their picks of the leading five sportsmen and women from a
list of 100 compiled by Reuters journalists. The winner, said Ori Lewis of
The Jerusalem Post, "must be an instantly recognizable world figure whose
feats will occupy pages in history books in the future too." Jeremy Walker
of the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun, a senior sports journalist who
participated in the survey, described why he thought Pelé was a natural
winner for the coveted honor. "[Pelé is] Brazil's number one player -- a
gentleman, a genius, the perfect sportsman," Walker said. Pelé's rank at the
top of the list is a testament to the way in which Brazil's beloved "black
pearl" transcended racial, national and international boundaries throughout
his extraordinary career; his name continues to be nearly synonymous with
the game of soccer more than 20 years after his retirement. "Pelé was
outstanding," said Andreas Jaros of Austria's Sportsmagazine. "He's still
known all over the world and has always been a great ambassador of soccer."
Perhaps reflecting a more U.S.-centric perspective, Sports Illustrated also
recently announced its selections for the top athletes of the past one
hundred years, naming Muhammad Ali the Sportsman of the Century. Jim Brown
was recognized as the Football Player of the Century and Michael Jordan won
the title Basketball Player of the Century, while Carl Lewis was elected
U.S. Olympian of the Century. Sports Illustrated honored Pelé for having
changed the game of soccer.
During a news conference earlier this year, Pelé, 59, spoke about the future
of soccer, particularly in America, where the sport was dormant for 12 years
until the formation of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996. According to The
Washington Times, Pelé, who spent the final three years of his career
playing for the New York Cosmos of the now defunct North American Soccer
League (NASL), helped to form MLS and believes it will succeed where NASL
failed. "The league needs to get more organized," Pelé said. "But it will
succeed. It is just too strong at the college level, the youth level [not
to]." Pelé pointed to newly built soccer stadiums such as Columbus, Ohio's
relatively modest 22,500-seat stadium, which opened in May, noting the
importance of an intimate atmosphere to the sport's integrity. "Soccer is a
game of emotion, and in this country it doesn't need huge stadiums that hold
75,000 or 100,000 people," Pelé said. "It needs stadiums...that provide
atmosphere."
Not long before Reuters announced its recent poll results, Pelé spoke with
The Evening Post of New Zealand about his career and the ongoing phenomenon
that is "Pelé." Most comfortable talking about his career through anecdotes,
Pelé recalled the experience of playing in his first World Cup game in 1958.
It was 0-0 at halftime, and Brazil was not getting any favors. Pelé picked
the story up from there: "And then, suddenly, there was that opportunity for
which we had been waiting. We had brought the ball down into their penalty
area and Didi had the ball. He passed it to me on the run with that
incredible accuracy of his when I was only a few feet from the goal area. I
was about to kick when I saw a foot swooping down to tackle the ball. I
touched the ball lightly, bouncing it towards me as the foot passed beneath;
I let the ball fall and then kicked it."
"To my disappointment I saw [Jack] Kelsey dive in to intercept, but just as
he seemed sure to block the point, the ball struck the foot of another
defender and skidded past Kelsey into the net. I have no idea how many times
I ran and jumped, ran and jumped, all the while screaming, 'GOAL' like a
maniac. I had to get rid of that tremendous pressure of relief, of joy, of I
don't know what that was inside me!"
"I was crying like a baby, babbling, while the rest of the team pummeled me,
almost suffocating me. That was certainly my most unforgettable goal -- my
luckiest, as has been said, possibly -- but definitely my most
unforgettable."
Pelé’s exploits have had such a significant impact on fans around the world
that there is a large body of famous quotes inspired by the legendary soccer
star. "Scoring 1,000 goals like Pelé is not that difficult, but scoring one
goal like Pelé is," the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade once said.
"If Pelé hadn't been born a man, he would have been born a ball," wrote
journalist Armando Nogueira. Robert Redford, after witnessing Pelé give
dozens of autographs in New York while Redford was not asked for one,
exclaimed, "Wow, man, you're popular!" And perhaps the most repeated of them
all: "How do you spell Pelé? G-O-D," originally quoted in The London Sunday
Times. What to make of all this? Pelé, matching his modesty with his
talents, responds: "Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be
Pelé. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a
soccer player, but how to be like a man." Athlete of the century, man of a
thousand more.
http://www.africana.com/index_19991205.htm
Brazil Faces Threat to Unique World Cup Record
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Updated 11:55 AM ET December 3, 1999
By Mike Collett
TOKYO (Reuters) - Brazil's unique record of being the only country to have
taken part in the finals of every World Cup is in danger because of
allegedly fielding overage players at an under-17 tournament.
If found guilty, the Brazilian soccer federation, the CBF, could be banned
from international soccer for two years, based on punishments handed out by
FIFA in similar cases.
That would mean Brazil, the only country to win the World Cup four times,
would not be able to compete in the qualifying round of the 2002 World Cup
finals. They would also forfeit the right to play at the Sydney Olympics.
FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper told Reuters on Friday: "The facts, as we
understand them, are that some overage players appeared for Brazil in an
under-17 tournament and FIFA is launching a thorough investigation into the
case.
"Let me also say that you are innocent until proven guilty and there are
many issues to be resolved. We have been aware of one player -- Sandro
Hiroshi -- being involved. There may be others."
Both Mexico and Nigeria have been banned from international soccer in the
past after it was found their federations fielded overage players.
But Brazil have already mounted a strong defense, saying the players
involved were to blame and acted alone without the CBF's knowledge.
CBF president Ricardo Texeira, the former son-in-law of FIFA's ex-president,
Joao Havelange, has demanded a life-ban on the three players involved --
Hiroshi, and Henrique, who play for Sao Paulo, and Bell, who plays for
Botafogo.
All three are alleged to have submitted false identity papers, passports and
birth certificates to the CBF.
Texeira, himself a member of the FIFA Executive Committee -- as well as
being a member of the 2002 World Cup organizing committee -- is also
involved in Brazil's bid to stage the World Cup in 2006.
He is providing his FIFA colleagues with a full dossier on the affair.
However, the matter is not on the formal agenda set for next week's
Executive Committee meeting and Brazil's name will be in Tuesday's draw for
the 2002 qualifying competition.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991203/11/sports-soccer-brazil
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