Football Wizard Pele Passed Away, Know What Special Relationship He Had With India

Pele Dies: With the passage of this year many people are leaving us. This morning brought the news of two such deaths. However, the two great personalities who left us had lived lives to the fullest. Prime Minister Modi's mother Heerben passed away after 100 years of fulfilling life. At the same time, 82-year-old Pele died on 30 December 2022. His daughter informed about this on social media.

Pele was in the hospital for a long time. He was suffering from stomach cancer. He also visited India thrice.

If playing is music, then perhaps there is no other greater musician than him in the world. He has three World Cup titles and 784 goals, although he scored more than 1,200 goals, but only so many have been recognized by FIFA.

First global superstar of sports world

Pele's popularity was not limited to geographical boundaries. Born in 1940, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, i.e. Pele, was one of the pioneers who took football's popularity to its peak and created a huge market for it. In the Hindi film 'Golmaal' - not of Ajay Devgn, but the old film of Amol Palekar - Utpal Dutt asks Amol Palekar about 'Black Pearl' that is Pele in the interview, then Palekar's answer is that he has heard that there are about 30-40 thousand mad people in Calcutta. They had reached Dum Dum airport at midnight to see him.

First came to India in 1977

When he came to Kolkata in 1977, it was as if the whole city had come to a standstill. He came on the invitation of Mohun Bagan and played football for about half an hour at Eden Gardens, which was witnessed by 80,000 spectators. After that match Mohun Bagan's fortunes changed and the team returned to winning ways. After that he came to Kolkata for the last time in 2018 and the craziness was the same for him. In between he also came to India in 2015.

There was a ceasefire so that Pele's game may continue

Such was his popularity that during the Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s, a 48-hour truce was held between the warring factions so that they could watch a Pele match in Lagos. He was equally loved by the politicians. 

He could single-handedly make Brazil, a country plagued by corruption, civil war and all kinds of diseases, a football superpower. Pele's game was so magical that even dictators used to salute him.