In Memoriam 2022: Pelé (1940–2022) Tribute List

Pelé – born Edson Arantes do Nascimento – was a world-renowned Brazilian soccer player, who became, in his time, the greatest and best-paid athlete in the world, and the only soccer player to win three World Cup championships. At retirement, he held several seemingly unbreakable records, leading FIFA to label Pelé "the greatest" and the IOC to name him Athlete of the Century. Pelé emerged as the first Black global sporting star in the 1958 World Cup, and at career's end (1975), he led the New York Cosmos to a championship and helped popularize the new U.S. soccer league. Pelé also became a Brazilian national hero and supported policies improving social conditions of the poor.