[HN Gopher] Pele has died
___________________________________________________________________
Pele has died
Author : mfiguiere
Score : 367 points
Date : 2022-12-29 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| Iuz wrote:
| As a brazilian football fanatic, who grew with my dad and uncle
| who are equally fanatics, the "greatest of all time" or "that I
| have seen" conversation has happened my entire life. For that
| reason, Pele is one the human beings I most talked about. It is
| also surely the football player who stopped before I was even
| born that I most watched, from entire games I was able to find to
| movies to clips... just so I could have a better argument at the
| table with the grown ups... Sad day, RIP.
| agumonkey wrote:
| A long term world famous name .. his loss resonates weirdly.
| joaquimadraz wrote:
| "Everything you see any player doing, Pele did it first."
| tambourine_man wrote:
| It's hard to imagine these days, when we have multiple camera
| angles for even the most mediocre of plays, but most of Pele's
| games were never even captured on film.
|
| We have to rely on people's memories, newspaper articles, etc.
| His favorite ever goal had to be re-created in computer
| animation.
|
| Such a shame, not having access to that material feels almost
| like the tragedy of the Library of Alexandria. How things have
| changed.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| https://archive.vn/BqE3U
| kendriklampar wrote:
| Football fans always argue about who's the best player in the
| history. In Pele case, it's not only about what he did on the
| field, it's also about what he did outside. Coming from a poor
| family, Pele dad taught him how to handle a football by
| practicing with mangoes. Not so many years later he carried
| Brazil for 3 world cup winnings (in the first win he was only 17
| y.o!), making Brazil popular all over the world and bringing a
| lot of respect for his country and South America.
|
| Without Pele football might not be popular as it's today. His
| skills, personality and charm made millions of people all over
| the world fall in love with the game.
|
| Such a great person and amazing player.
|
| RIP
| Bayart wrote:
| The nice thing about Pele is that he was by all account an all
| around nice guy and remained a positive influence right until
| death. You can't say the same about Maradona who will be
| remembered perhaps more for cheating and dying a fat cokehead
| than for his ball carrying.
| 101008 wrote:
| > about Maradona who will be remembered perhaps more for
| cheating and dying a fat cokehead than for his ball carrying.
|
| I thought you French guys were butthurt by Messi, not
| Maradona.
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| I'm from Argentina, and I think for the people of my
| generation (90s onwards) the image we have of el Diego is
| that he was a cheating fat coke head who supported all the
| wrong politicians, and left us with an infinite amount of
| memes and phrases, mostly related to cocaine.
|
| My parents generation will probably have a different feel
| about the guy, as they saw him in all his glorious days,
| whereas we only knew his decadent state.
| augusto-moura wrote:
| Messi is light years better of a person. If anything people
| should think of him as the greatest Argentinian player of
| all time
| andrepd wrote:
| >You can't say the same about Maradona who will be remembered
| perhaps more for cheating and dying a fat cokehead than for
| his ball carrying.
|
| Despite him being a scumbag in many aspects of the personal
| life, this is way off the mark. He is one of the all time
| GOATs and his adoration in Argentina borders on the
| fanatical.
| the_af wrote:
| Seconded. Here in Argentina Maradona is (was?) a highly
| polarizing celebrity, and of course has detractors, but his
| admirers are multitude and he is worshipped _as a person_ ,
| not just as a soccer player.
|
| It's absolutely not true that he is widely remembered as a
| scumbag; some people of course do, others acknowledge that
| he struggled with drugs all of his life but he came from
| humble beginnings and never forgot nor reneged on this, and
| many call him D10S (a play on Spanish "dios" and the number
| 10 he wore on his t-shirt). That's not the mark of someone
| widely remembered as a scumbag.
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| It really depends on who you ask in Argentina, he was a
| very divisive figure.
|
| Sports wise, he was a genius.
|
| As a person? He was a total asshole.
| mym1990 wrote:
| No need for the comparison, few will ever know the weight
| that some of these icons carry, the people they are
| surrounded by who change the course of their lives, for
| better or for worse. Maradona was no saint or role model, but
| this is a celebration of what Pele was able to accomplish.
| Bayart wrote:
| I'm making the comparison because _the comparison was made
| for decades_. Pele versus Maradona is the original GOAT
| wars.
| philippejara wrote:
| Many comparisons were made for decades, that doesn't mean
| you should bring it up unprompted during the announcement
| of the death of one of the subjects purely to disparage
| the other side. If you want to honor pele, act as he
| would, instead of using his death as another opportunity
| to bring up what was effectively an old timers console
| war.
| nextaccountic wrote:
| > an all around nice guy
|
| I hate to be that guy, but.. he had a daughter that he didn't
| want to recognize, Sandra, she had to sue him (she did prove
| he was her father, but ended up receiving no money. she
| however could use his surname)
|
| She also died of cancer, just like he died today, but back in
| 2006. Not even after she died he would show up - he sent
| flowers through his company, so.. that's not my definition of
| an all around nice guy
|
| That's also not a man that somehow didn't want children. He
| also had 6 other children that he treated just fine. How
| would you live knowing that your father rejects you, but not
| your brothers and sisters?
| fijinotctl wrote:
| Sounds like Steve Jobs and his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs
| whom he denied paternity for several years. No success can
| compensate for failure in the home.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| Yeah but how many iPhones did Pele invent?
| svnt wrote:
| The same number as Steve Jobs.
| thelock85 wrote:
| Just spent a month in Rio and a friend brought this up when
| we were discussing Pele's legacy (right when he was rumored
| to be in hospice).
|
| I also learned that a lot of Brazilians (at least in Rio)
| are bigger fans of their local/favorite club team than the
| national team so many who aren't Santos fans don't consider
| him the greatest (even though they obviously loved him).
| boredemployee wrote:
| Not sure about the people you spent time with but, I'd
| say, with no doubt, that the bigger share of brazilians
| consider Pele the goat.
| epolanski wrote:
| Also Pele was always okay being used as a PR stunt during
| the dictatorship against which he has never spoken a word.
| diegoholiveira wrote:
| So, one mistake is all is needed to fade away all other
| great things he did?
| aeonsky wrote:
| Not even going to point out that the OP isn't even trying
| to overlook all the good things he did.
|
| It's a stretch to argue that a lifetime of neglect is a
| singular mistake. This was an ongoing issue that he kept
| choosing over and over again.
| medellin wrote:
| On social networks yes. Because all nuance is lost and
| things are only white and black.
|
| It's stupid and part of why they are so bad for my
| personal mental health
| gameman144 wrote:
| I honestly don't have any horse in this race: Pele
| probably was an all-around great guy. To call a lifetime
| of ignoring your child "one mistake" feels like a
| mischaracterization, though. It might not even be
| considered a bad thing, but it's definitely an ongoing
| decision.
|
| As an analogy, I eat meat. Future generations might see
| that as immoral. It's definitely not a mistake I made one
| time, though, it's an ongoing choice that I'm making
| repeatedly over the course of my life.
| diegoholiveira wrote:
| A mistake is required to be a "one time thing"? There's
| no "continues mistake"?
|
| I do believe he's super wrong on this subject, but not
| even for a moment I consider him as a bad person because
| of that.
| optymizer wrote:
| It's not like he forgot to tip the waitress. He rejected
| his own daughter. How would you like it if your father
| actively tried to ignore your existence? Have some
| empathy for a fellow human being. It's horrible behavior,
| regardless of Pele's fame.
| osrec wrote:
| You are more forgiving than a lot of people. I know very
| little about football or Pele, but this particular
| "mistake" seems like a biggie.
|
| It's like you be a nice guy 99.9% of the time, but in the
| remaining percent you murder someone. All your niceness
| is nullified by your single action.
| psychphysic wrote:
| It's a bit weird though, I can't imagine disowning a
| child but why not? People put kids up for adoption.
|
| It's really weird to insist on using your biological
| father's surname if they disown you.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Adoption and disowning have very different connotations.
| Generally adoption is seen as a best attempt to find
| someone who can take care of the kid. Generally disowning
| is seen as just washing your hands of the situation I
| think.
| psychphysic wrote:
| It's a very unfortunate situation.
|
| But what grosses me out is if Pele were not who he is.
| She wouldn't have been so insistent on using his name.
|
| I doubt it was a yearning to connect with her ancestor
| that lead to it and not money and fame. She had a mum,
| use her surname she raised you!
| numbsafari wrote:
| It's only a misteak if you eat at Geno's. Don't make a
| misteak, eat at Pat's.
| justin66 wrote:
| > I hate to be that guy
|
| I bet that's a lie.
| mym1990 wrote:
| Agreed, and Pele helped popularize the sport in an era with no
| social media, and a much slower movement of media in general,
| on a footprint of 4 world cups, 3 of which he won. RIP
| eddsh1994 wrote:
| Pele is fantastic, no question there, but in what world was
| Pele popularizing the already worlds most popular sport?
| Maybe this is just a super US-centric viewpoint I'm unaware
| of as an Englishman?
| melling wrote:
| Yes, definitely US centric but still...
|
| He popularized it a bit in the United States in the 1970's
| when he came here to play.
|
| They even put him in the movies, playing soccer/football,
| of course:
|
| https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0083284/
| [deleted]
| smn1234 wrote:
| he had radio combined with black & white television which
| were critical media formats coming together and massively
| popular that contributed
| hardlianotion wrote:
| I would say he made the Brazilian team image the stuff of
| legends. This foot-ball thing was plenty-plenty popular
| throughout the world, having spread like wildfire throughout
| the twentieth century.
| eschulz wrote:
| Pele supported AYSO in the US back in 1970. Associating his
| fame with this youth soccer group certainly played a big part
| in growing the game in the US. As the sport continues to grow
| in this country, I think it's fair to say that he's a founding
| father of soccer in the United States.
|
| https://twitter.com/ayso_soccer/status/1294317989790187520
| lucis wrote:
| Pele is not seen as a great person in Brazil, from my
| perspective. People cherish him as the best soccer player in
| the world, but his personal life is mostly associated with bad
| stories.
|
| He has two cases of not recognizing biological daughters, with
| one of those having died of cancer in 2006 [1]
|
| 1 - https://www.sportscasting.com/soccer-star-pele-refused-to-
| ac...
| ergocoder wrote:
| > People cherish him as the best soccer player in the world
|
| Compared to R7 and Messi, Pele's records are mediocre.
| philippejara wrote:
| As a brazillian, as I assume you also are, can't help but
| disagree. The ratio of good to bad is at most 9-1 in my
| experience, and I say this with no exaggeration. The only
| time I can remember people really talking shit about his
| personal was in the ~2013 protests when he called for
| protesters to watch the cup(?) or something instead of
| protest, his illegitimate daughter is mostly a footnote when
| talking about his personal life for better or for worse, the
| man's affair with xuxa is far more of a topic of discussion.
| mbg721 wrote:
| Growing up in the US, at least before the 94 World Cup, I knew
| next to nothing about soccer. But Pele was nevertheless a
| household name; he and Brazil were practically synonymous with
| the game.
| Thaxll wrote:
| Pele was kind of a douche, seen him years ago he had a huge ego.
| Really not someone you want to like.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Watching rival Argentina win what many would consider the
| greatest WC final ever had to kill him.
| EL_Loco wrote:
| Nope. The rivalry really only happens when Brazil plays against
| Argentina. Pretty much everyone here was rooting for Argentina
| to win this final.
|
| edit: and yes, I agree, this was the greates World Cup final
| I've ever seen, and I've seen them all since the 80's
| Mobius01 wrote:
| I don't think so. The rivalry between Brazil and Argentina is
| nowhere remotely intense as the media likes to portray (and
| profit from) - with the exception toxic fans on both sides.
| tiseno wrote:
| I'm sorry, why is this on hacker news?
| fillskills wrote:
| Hackers are also Humans
| BeetleB wrote:
| If you look at the top of the page, you'll see a "submit" link.
| It probably has something to do with it.
| drukenemo wrote:
| For many, the greatest athlete that has ever lived has just
| passed away. He is world-wide famous, so why not?
| methyl wrote:
| Because apparently a lot of people here care enough about
| football and want to discuss it. Why not?
| mateusfreira wrote:
| The king is dead :(
| quirino wrote:
| Few people in Brazil dare to suggest there has ever been an
| athlete greater than Pele. I don't think we'll ever see anyone
| else win 3 World Cups.
| m4tthumphrey wrote:
| Mbappe will get at least 2 more. If Messi wasn't in the
| Argentina team this year he'd have got his second. He's 23.
| soneca wrote:
| Very bold prediction to use the word "will" without any
| qualification
| wslh wrote:
| It is impossible to predict but we can talk about the past:
| Messi is Argentinian and Maradona too. A goal like this will
| be difficult to see in the future:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wVho3I0NtU
| eldaisfish wrote:
| Predictions like this have been made about numerous players
| and most have been wrong.
|
| What wins a world cup is a team, not individuals.
| sofixa wrote:
| And France have easily one of the best teams, with _lots_
| of very talented youngsters waiting for a chance to prove
| themselves. Even with multiple injured highly important
| players that would have otherwise started (Pogba, Kante, L.
| Hernandez, Benzema, Nkunku to an extent) they got to the
| final. For every player retiring (Benzema, probably Giroud
| and Lloris) there are younger players ready to step in, all
| the way down to the youth teams. And this is at every
| position, unlike most other teams like Brazil, Argentina,
| Germany, Spain that have obvious gaps in at least one
| position. The only other ones that come close in terms of
| all roundness of talent are England.
|
| France will be a menace for at least the next decade.
| quetzthecoatl wrote:
| while france does have a great squad, this sort of
| prediction goes against world cup history. Hardly ever
| the favorites win the world cup. In fact, imo the last
| time the favorites won the world cup was in 2002.
| Beltalowda wrote:
| > What wins a world cup is a team, not individuals.
|
| Also just luck. You can be in an "easy" play-off pool or a
| "difficult" one, you can have "easy" or "difficult" quarter
| finals, semi-finals, and finals.
|
| Of course it still takes great skill and preparation from
| the entire team to win no matter what, and I don't want to
| take away from that, but the way the thing is set up means
| that in the end, "winning" doesn't mean nearly as much as
| it's made out to be.
| jpcrs wrote:
| This is exactly one of to reasons to guess that Mbappe will
| achieve this. Even if he, as individual, get injuried or
| worse at playing, France still has an incredibly strong
| young generation.
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| You can't compare different times, not trying to downplay what
| Pele did, but there is surely more density now, so
| statistically harder to do the same
| dinkumthinkum wrote:
| As Kasparov said about comparing players like Kobe to Jordan
| or Carlson to himself, it is difficult because they later
| players had the benefit of being able to study them earlier
| ones.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I don't know how to call this blend of virginiality and
| pioneering. Being both breaking barriers when there's a lot
| of barriers to break in a way.
| clairity wrote:
| let's poor one out for kobe here since his obituary was
| flagged off hn at the time.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Do you have any estimation into the relative reverence/awe
| between Pele and Ayrton Senna? Both seemed to be dominant in
| their sport and be fanatically loved by fans and the general
| public.
| [deleted]
| quirino wrote:
| Senna is one of the very few people as universally beloved as
| Pele here. Since his activity was much more recent he's
| closer to the heart of a lot of people.
| randiantech wrote:
| I dont think that Senna can compare to Pele.
| pantulis wrote:
| This gives and idea of how great was Pele.
| squokko wrote:
| Soccer just has way more fans than auto racing, and
| astronomically more players from recreational to amateur to
| professional.
| pastor_bob wrote:
| >I don't think we'll ever see anyone else win 3 World Cups.
|
| Mbappe a contender. Just needs to win 2 out of the next 3
| foogazi wrote:
| Wow he was so close this WC
| sarasasa28 wrote:
| He played against farmers at his time so
| [deleted]
| quirino wrote:
| Which farmers are you referring to? The European nations he
| defeated in the World Cups?
|
| Besides, Europe didn't always have the strongest clubs in the
| world. South American clubs were just as good all the way
| through the 80's.
|
| Many people discredit Pele's goals in state championships and
| friendlies, but fail to consider how at the time those state
| championships were considered more valued than national and
| continental ones.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| It still astounds me that he managed to get as famous as he did
| almost exclusively from his World Cup performances, as basically
| nobody outside of Brazil could have seen his club games. Sure he
| was amazing, but most of the world got to see/hear him play well
| under 20 games lifetime. Yet somehow seemingly everybody knew who
| he was for decades
| mbreese wrote:
| He also played in NYC for a few years at the end of his playing
| career for the NY Cosmos.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| I assume that most of the people watching him play there did
| not watch him play in the World Cup, as the USA missed every
| World Cup between 1950 and 1990.
| andrepd wrote:
| Santos toured Europe many many times, playing the best European
| teams of that time.
| soneca wrote:
| After the first two World Cups his fame also brought fame to
| his club, Santos, that had a spectacular team also. They did
| world tours to showcase their talent. I believe most of his
| fame around the world came from these tours.
|
| Here is a recollection of such tours, focusing on a debatable
| feat of stopping a civil war:
|
| https://www.goal.com/en/amp/news/did-pele-and-santos-really-...
| brabel wrote:
| The Brazilian team he played in, Santos, was not really a great
| team when Pele arrived... but once Pele showed up, that team
| became a win-everything team, 23 titles including two world
| championships, for over 10 years. Some claim Pele's Santos was
| one of the greatest teams to ever have played football.
| Wherever they went, it was a full house, and they did tour
| outside Brazil, but not very often, sure. In any case, Pele's
| fame is in no way exagerated. He won 3 world cups, something
| nearly unheard of even after all these years, won every
| championship Santos tried (his teammates were also amazing [1],
| of course - but Pele's prominency has never been questioned by
| anyone, specially his teammates) for a really long time... and
| he just made the game beautiful with every touch... watching
| his works in situations that did not even end up with a goal
| has always been as popular as watching his most amazing goals
| as I grew up.
|
| [1] Pele & the immortal Santos of 1960-1969
| https://imortaisdofutebol.com/esquadrao-imortal-santos-1960-...
| chrisbaker98 wrote:
| > something nearly unheard of even after all these years
|
| It's not "nearly" unheard of, it's completely unheard of
| apart from in Pele's case. He remains the only player ever to
| have won three world cups.
| epolanski wrote:
| > Wherever they went, it was a full house
|
| They lost against many European teams.
|
| And they won what, only 2 or 3 libertadores in a decade?
|
| Real Madrid won 5 of the last 8 Uefa Champions Leagues for
| comparison.
| honkler wrote:
| [flagged]
| [deleted]
| dvt wrote:
| Weird comment, as HN is not just a "tech news" site.
| yterdy wrote:
| The same kind of posters came out of the woodwork when Kobe
| died. Several posts with dozens of replies each were flagged
| to death, such that there wasn't really a place to discuss it
| on HN. An unfortunate side effect of tech being a safe haven
| for those of us who aren't physically-gifted (in a society
| that prizes and privileges athleticism) is that a subset will
| resent any mention of sports.
| xupybd wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| dvt wrote:
| If you don't find the life and legacy of arguably the
| greatest football player to ever live interesting or
| intellectually gratifying, it probably speaks more to your
| own proclivities rather than HN's submission guidelines.
| xupybd wrote:
| My point was more "Anything that good hackers would find
| interesting." It's not an exclusively tech site but does
| lean heavily in that direction. And you're correct I'm
| not a soccer fan.
| tbalsam wrote:
| HN is for eminently interesting or important things. This i
| believe falls into the latter for many people.
| quirino wrote:
| Here's a comment from u/DarkJayBR on Reddit, many great quotes:
|
| RIP to the King of Football!
|
| Here is what some legends had to say about him back in the days:
|
| *Johan Cruyff*: I can be a new Di Stefano, but I can't be a new
| Pele. He is the only one who goes beyond the limits of logic.
|
| *Eric Cantona*: An artist in my eyes is someone who can light up
| a dark room. I have never found and will never find a difference
| between Pele's pass to Carlos Alberto in the 1970 World Cup final
| and the poetry of the young Rimbaud. There is in each of these
| human manifestations an expression of beauty that touches us and
| gives us a sense of eternity.
|
| *Bobby Moore*: Pele was the most complete player I've ever seen,
| he had everything. Two good feet. Magic in the air. Fast.
| Powerful. He could beat people with skill. He could outrun
| people. He was only 5ft 7in, yet he looked like a giant athlete
| on the field. Perfect balance and impossible vision. He was the
| biggest because he could do anything and everything on a football
| field. I remember Saldhana, the manager, being asked by a
| Brazilian journalist who was the best goalkeeper in his squad. He
| said Pele. In his opinion, the man could play any position.
| Sometimes I feel like football was invented for this magical
| player.
|
| *Michel Platin*i: There's Pele, the man, and then Pele, the
| player. And to play like Pele is to play like God.
|
| *Eusebio*: Pele played in an era that had many great players and
| in that environment he stood out above the rest. He was a
| complete player in every way, as well as being a kind human
| being. Cristiano Ronaldo is still young, and has many years ahead
| of him. But so far, I don't see anyone who compares to Pele.
|
| *Franz Beckenbauer*: Pele is the greatest player of all time. He
| reigned supreme for 20 years. All others - Diego Maradona, Johan
| Cruyff, Michel Platini - are below him. There is no one who
| compares to Pele.
|
| *Cesar Luis Menotti*: It's ugly to compare, but the greatest was
| Pele. If we believe that God made man, God made Pele perfect.
| Gave it all to him. Nothing was missing, heading, physical
| strength, dribbling, finishing, inspiration, genius, temperament,
| vision, goal. All.
|
| *Gianni Rivera*: However, I think there is someone who was even
| better (than Messi) and that is Pele. He used both feet on the
| field. He was just as dangerous with his right as he was with his
| left. He was strong in the air too, and created a lot of chances.
|
| *Hugo Gatti:* Pele had the skin of a player, head, rhythm,
| everything. It was a panther dressed in white, I played with him.
| He came in to play at the last minute and managed to turn the
| game around. And the big difference is that Pele created fear on
| the field, Maradona didn't... For me it's Pele, Alfredo Di
| Stefano and Maradona, in that order. Thanks to Diego, he's a
| great player. But Pele was from another planet.
|
| *Tarcisio Burgnich*: I said to myself before the game, 'he's made
| of skin and bones like everyone else'. But I was wrong.
|
| *Ferenc Puskas*: The greatest player in history was Di Stefano. I
| refuse to classify Pele as a player. He was above that.
|
| *Sigge Parling*: After the fifth goal, even I had to applaud him.
|
| *Costa Pereira*: I arrived with the hope of stopping a great man,
| but I left convinced that we just had been destroyed by someone
| who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.
|
| *Tostao*: Pele was the greatest - just perfect. And off the field
| he was always smiling and excited. You never see him moody. He
| loves being Pele.
|
| *Just Fontaine:* When I saw Pele play, I felt like I should hang
| up my boots, I've never felt so dominated and outclassed like
| that.
|
| *Andy Warhol*: Pele was one of the few who contradicted my
| theory: instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.
| racl101 wrote:
| R.I.P. Pele, legendary player.
| keepquestioning wrote:
| Pele is the Bradman of Soccer. His skills and dominance simply
| elevated the game to what it is today.
|
| The lack of singular "GOAT" character in other tier 2/3 sports
| like Cricket (now)/Rugby Union/Field Hockey explain their total
| free-fall in popularity.
| betolink wrote:
| In his book "Soccer in Sun and Shadow", Eduardo Galeano
| beautifully captures the essence of Pele's status: "those of us
| who were lucky enough to see him play received alms of an
| extraordinary beauty: moments so worthy of immortality that they
| make us believe immortality exists."
| surfsvammel wrote:
| So sorry to hear this. Pele was, and continues to be, a true
| legend. He made football beautiful and full of wonder. He was
| also there in 1958, and scored two goals, when Sweden had its
| chance to become world champions, a chance I don't believe my
| country will ever get again. RIP
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| One of the few soccer players I heard about before the US sports
| media tried to start cramming the sport down our throats in an
| attempt to create a new market. Pele and Maradona (although
| Maradona was only known to us because of a blown ref call).
| keepquestioning wrote:
| Unfortunately Pele was a womanizer. One good act does not wash
| out the bad.
| somid3 wrote:
| Wow, im in tears after reading this and watching the video. Best
| of all, he was a great man. So much love for humanity.
| adharmad wrote:
| One of the most dramatic stories has to be him causing both sides
| in the Nigerian civil war to have a cease fire to watch him play.
|
| Part of it might be the universal appeal of football, but it is
| undeniable that his legend preceded him.
| quetzthecoatl wrote:
| while this story is a legend that most likely isn't true (there
| was a brief pause of the war for the length of the game (120
| minutes max), and there was an actual ceasefire two weeks later
| unrelated to the match), this is actually true for Drogba.His
| appeal to his fellow citizens literally stopped the civil war.
| https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52072592
|
| Drogba's minute long appeal to stop the civil war and conduct
| elections made the warring factions to put down their weapons
| and come to negotiation table.
| senorrib wrote:
| Yes, a big coincidence that the war happened to pause for the
| length of the game and that nobody questions the correlation
| of both events. Great respect for Drogba, but these two are
| not really exclusive events (also, not a competition).
| kingstoned wrote:
| [flagged]
| ls15 wrote:
| You can't just decide for the rest of the world what it
| important and what is unimportant.
|
| I mean, many people tried, but the outcome is typically
| devastating.
| sofixa wrote:
| Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most
| important.
|
| (Pope John Paul II according to a quick Google search)
| jpcrs wrote:
| A guy that was so good at shooting balls that stopped a civil
| war for 48 hours just by playing a game.
| silisili wrote:
| It's hard to see the intangibles of most athletes. They donate
| tons to charities, start foundations, give speeches, work with
| kids, etc. Who can count how many kids were inspired enough by
| his play or works or interactions to be 'saved', the world will
| never know. Surely more on all counts than you or me.
|
| It's kinda blind to reduce him to 'a ball kicker.' Sure, he did
| that, but not only that.
| eddsh1994 wrote:
| Could you name someone who did an amazing thing and died today
| who isn't in the news?
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| I am open to _constructive_ criticism.
|
| Pele impacted politics through his game [Nigerian war, cold
| war]. When Pele was visiting Nigeria, a truce was brokered so
| the entire country could enjoy watching him - while politicians
| could not make any headway. Many countries behind the Iron
| Curtain could not get Western news, but when Pele was playing
| even the dictators allowed watching the games.
|
| > Meanwhile, many great people who did amazing things are
| unknown to the public.
|
| It would be more _constructive_ if you provided a list or
| reference.
| is-is-odd wrote:
| You seem fun
| zmxz wrote:
| Does this mean that unless everyone who you deem great and
| worthy get praise, people can't respect humans they heard of,
| grew up watching or had as idols?
|
| In Pele's case, you really should read about that man and what
| he did _outside_ the game he was famous for.
|
| You're someone who managed to find hackernews, make an account
| and you have no excuse for not informing yourself before
| writing such a stupid comment. Correct it next time you get the
| urge to classify who should praise who and when.
| blastonico wrote:
| There's football before Pele and after Pele.
| flemhans wrote:
| He was once at Web Hosting Days in Rust. Some company paid him to
| sit and represent them.
|
| Many of the geekz didn't know who he was. He had a "wtf am I
| doing here" look on his face
| smn1234 wrote:
| I loved the Netflix documentary. So much history about the man
| himself, about soccer (futbol / futbol), and about Brazil
| kaycebasques wrote:
| I was very impressed with how honest he was about himself. He
| didn't downplay or avoid his own mistakes and shortcomings yet
| he also didn't seem to have much guilt or anguish about them. I
| left that documentary respecting him even more.
| cambalache wrote:
| [dead]
| schoen wrote:
| There is a banned commenter who tried to reply to you to point
| out (without any substantive explanation) that futbol is the
| Spanish word, while futebol is Portuguese. So Pele himself
| would have referred to his sport as "futebol".
| chrisbaker98 wrote:
| Pronounced "foo-chee-BOW"
| smn1234 wrote:
| valid
| webnrrd2k wrote:
| Wow. I'm sorry to hear that he died... I got a chance to meet him
| when I was a kid.
|
| I was raised in a fairly poor neighborhood that in Souther
| California. One day they decided to set up a Boy Scouts troop. At
| the local junior high someone had arranged a gathering of the
| neighborhood kids and parents. Pele was the guest speaker. He
| talked for an hour or so about soccer and scouting, and people
| got to meet him after.
|
| To this day I'm impressed that he put in the time and effort to
| show up and talk with twenty or so kids who he didn't know.
| guax wrote:
| F
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