The nickname of a soccer player: Pese. A tribute to the Brazilian president-elect, Oscar Pelé, in his final resting place

Few Brazilians took the name of their country as far as Pelé did, according to the president-elect, who took to the Internet to pay his respects.

Fireworks greeted the hearse carrying Pelé’s coffin as it left the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, where the three-time World Cup winner died on Thursday from multiple organ failure due to the progression of colon cancer.

Pelé, who had considered retiring before the 1970 World Cup, scored a goal of his own in the final and a total of four over the course of the tournament.

foreigners from the four corners of the planet found a way to say the magic word: Pese, as different from Portuguese as the language was.

The cortege will continue to Pelé’s final resting place, the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica cemetery in Santos, where a private funeral, reserved for family members, will be held.

Pelé grew up watching his father play professionally in a small town in southeastern Brazil. He played in the streets, where he earned his nickname, and then in youth leagues. There, a former Brazilian national team player coached him and oversaw his move at age fifteen to the club Santos, near São Paulo.

The footballer is not sure of the origin of the nickname Pel. He told The Guardian that it probably started with school classmates teasing him for mangling the nickname of another player. Whatever the origin, the moniker stuck.

When he was a child, he started playing soccer barefoot with socks and rags rolling up into a ball that he would grow to love and make a good career out of.

“He leaves a legacy, a person of color who was crowned king of soccer, and he also brought a lot of peace outside Brazil,” Tavares, a 67-year-old school-van driver, said at the barbed-wire fence outside his home. He was the only one who represented Brazil abroad.

“When we won the World Cup, everybody knew about Brazil,” he told CNN’s Don Riddell in 2016. I thought this was the most important thing to give to my country because they were well known after the World Cup.

Another World Cup victory came in 1962, although an injury sidelined Pelé for the tournament’s later stages. Further injuries hampered his next campaign in 1966 as Brazil exited the competition after the group stage, but redemption came in 1970.

“Pelé was saying that we were going to win, and if Pelé was saying that, then we were going to win the World Cup,” Brazil’s co-captain Carlos Alberto said about the tournament.

The World Cup goal of Brazil in the final against Italy was arguably the most famous of all time and involved nine of the team’s players.

Pelé put the ball in the net when he teed it up forAlberto. Brazil has an excellent motto of jogo bonito, the beautiful game.

After their loss in the final, the Italians said Pel was flesh and bones like the rest of them. “Later, I realized I’d been wrong.”

The tournament capped Pelé’s World Cup career but not his time in the spotlight. In 1975, he signed a contract to play for the New York Cosmos.

The league, which attracted further big names like Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer, wouldn’t last, ultimately folding in 1984. But around the world, Pelé’s influence endured.

He remained in the public eye through endorsement deals and as an outspoken political voice who championed the poor in Brazil. He was a Goodwill ambassador for many years and supported vulnerable children.

“This debate about the player of the century is absurd,” said Zico, who represented Brazil in the decade after Pelé’s retirement. “There’s only one possible answer: Pelé. He is the greatest player of all time, and I might add.

Exactly how many goals Pelé scored during his career is unclear, and his Guinness World Records tally has come under scrutiny with many scored in unofficial matches.

Nelson Pelé: The King of the World Cup and the Golden Age of Sportswriting in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracan Stadium

He told the online magazine that if he dies one day, he will be happy. My sport allows me to do many things because it is the biggest sport in the world.

“He walks on the field with one of those irresistible and fatal authorities. I would say that of a king,” penned Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues upon watching a 17-year-old Pelé play in 1958.

He smashed the ball into the net in the tournament’s finale against Sweden after flicking the ball high over his defenders head. He became the youngest player in World Cup history to score a goal. The team’s exuberance became a symbol of the country as Brazil’s economy was booming.

“Pelé represents the best of Brazil: its people, its working class,” said Vinicius, 38, a physical-education instructor. “Pelé gives a sense of identity to the Brazilian people.”

He added karate and judo to his workouts at the gym. His teammate Mengálvio Figueiró said most players as talented as Pelé didn’t worry so much about physical conditioning, but Pelé “ran to the front of the line to do laps around the field.”

As he began to rack up wins for Santos alongside a powerful attacking squad, Pelé’s career also coincided with a golden age of Brazilian sportswriting, according to journalist Andrew Downie. Nelson and Mario Filho are known for their journalism, playwriting andcerbic wit. “People would buy the newspaper to see what they were saying” and pack stadiums to see what would happen next.

One Pelé goal that blew past six defenders and inspired a near-two-minute standing ovation in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã stadium moved a sportswriter not only to recount it in newsprint, but also to arrange for a commemorative plaque to be affixed to the sporting arena, birthing a Brazilian expression for any gorgeously executed feat: “plaque-worthy goal.”

Pelé bet on an earlier narrative that his success would show racial barriers are not as bad as they used to be, and so he ignored calls to denounce racism in the country. Pelé faced criticism for other actions of his off the field, including a fierce battle against legally recognizing one of his daughters.

According to Barreto, Brazilians are starting to view athletes differently because of political consequences of their actions. “We are slowly beginning to understand that it’s not only soccer. Soccer is not separate from society or our life.

Pelé’s World Cup was played on the radio as a boy. At first they used socks and string to play a game that they’d never seen before, because of his performance.

As a girl, Lucia Cunha listened to Pelé’s World Cup exploits while huddled around a radio with her siblings. She read his story in the newspapers when she was a child.

A group of about 200 people were outside of the stadium. Oliveira said that even replays of Pelé’s sensational playing make him swell with emotion.

The lawyer was outside the hospital crying with a Santos club flag around him. He had come directly from work to pay tribute to the player whose performances had electrified his own dad, and prompted decades of stories.

Fans had already started lining the streets in the early hours of Monday morning, many holding flags or banners with messages for ‘O Rei’ (“The King”). You are eternal, read one by the side of the highway.

Sports stars, politicians, and musicians from all over the world have paid tribute to a man that they say became a global icon because of his sport.