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Tribute: Pele retired from international football in 1977. He's still the gold standard players measure themselves against

Pele and football on television grew together. He could stop a Civil War; that's how popular he was in his prime.

December 30, 2022 / 03:35 IST
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Pelé in Amsterdam in 1981. The football superstar died on November 29, 2022. He was 82. (Photo: Fotopersbureau De Boer via Wikimedia Commons 1.0)

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele, was a global superstar for six decades. He died in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 29, 2022, aged 82.

Pele retired from international football in 1977 but continued to turn heads whenever he appeared at sports events. The three-time World Cup winner from Brazil appeared for the New York Cosmos against Mohun Bagan in Kolkata in September 1977. Lakhs of fans gathered at Dum Dum Airport for a glimpse of the footballing legend.

The game that found a mention in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's iconic Hindi film Golmaal, released two years later, in April 1979, in is a scene where the company boss (Utpal Dutt) asks a prospective employee (Amol Palekar), "What do you think about Black Pearl?"- the nickname Pele earned for creating magic with the ball on his feet.

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Pele was the first black sporting celebrity in the late-1950s when racism was rampant. He grew up amid extreme poverty. The man with the golden foot used to work in tea shops to earn extra money, and he could not afford a football back in the day. Pele grew up playing the sport in humid conditions in Sau Paulo.