the career of the King told in five (and a half) legendary goals – Liberation

Can Pelé be summed up in a few goals? It is not sure that a handful of goals is enough to tell the impact on the game of the legend of Brazilian football, who died on Thursday at the age of 82. The assists and dribbling shattering are an indicator at least as convincing. But when it comes to paying homage to the King, achievements remain the most effective memorials. From his more than 1,000 pawns – allegedly – ​​scored in his career, we have extracted five emblematic achievements of the player. And an almost legendary sixth goal.

June 19, 1958: his first World Cup goal

Pelé was born into the world at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. At only 17, he wears the colors auriverde alongside players such as Garrincha or Didi. On June 19, during a quarter-final played in Gothenburg against Wales, the young Brazilian prodigy scored his first World Cup achievement, a goal all the more important as he was the only one in the match. And he’s not disgusting: with his back to the cages, at the height of the penalty spot, Pelé controls his chest, takes the ball in a pivot with a furtive gesture which nails the defender to the marking, turns around and scores the outside of the foot.

In the next match, he slammed a hat-trick against France before scoring a brace in the final against the Swedes. Six goals in the tournament and a world title at stake: sacred first for Pelé.

August 2, 1959: the best goal of his career

A football club raises a statue at the entrance to its stadium to the glory of a player from another team, who humiliated his own defense. This is one of the many miracles we owe to King Pelé. In August 2006, a bust bearing his likeness was inaugurated at the entrance to the stadium on rue Javari, home of Clube Atlético Juventus, one of the many teams in São Paulo. On the plaque under the statue, we can read: “Tribute to Edson Arantes do Nascimento, King Pelé, sportsman of the 20th century, who during his glorious career as a football player, scored the best goal of his career in a Juventus-Santos match, at the Rodolfo stadium -Crespi from Javari Street, August 2, 1959.” That’s what it’s all about: the greatest achievement by the greatest player of all time. A monument. A myth.

A goal all the more legendary that there is no image: the meeting was not filmed. To get an idea of ​​​​the marvel, you have to rely on the memories of Pelé – who claimed this goal as his most successful, of his teammates, of his opponents, of spectators. Basically, it gives: overflow of the right winger of Santos who crosses for Pelé at the entrance to the penalty area. Which erases a first defender by controlling the ball, lobes a second defender, a third, then the CA Juventus goalkeeper, before putting the ball in the back of the net with a header. Can’t visualize it? A 3D reconstruction of the goal, made a few years ago, can help you see more clearly.

Did it really happen like this? Do we really want to know how it happened? Aren’t the most beautiful goals the ones we imagine listening to the radio rather than those we see on television in their naked truth? In any case, whether real or imaginary, three consecutive blows of the sombrero impose a single comment: hats off to the artist.

March 5, 1961: the “gol de placa”, the most beautiful goal ever scored at the Maracanã stadium

Another goal just as legendary as it is invisible: that scored by Pelé at the legendary stadium in Rio de Janeiro, on March 5, 1961 during the Rio-São Paulo tournament, the “gol de placa”. Or, approximately, “goal so beautiful that it deserves a commemorative plaque”. The plate in question exists, financed by a sports journalist dumbfounded by what he had seen. She is installed in front of the carioca enclosure and soberly summarizes the thing: “On this pitch, on March 5, 1961, Pelé scored the most beautiful goal in the history of the Maracanã”. In the jersey of the São Paulo club Santos, Pelé had then reviewed half of the Fluminense team. Starting from the midfield, he had played Waldo, Edmilson, Clóvis, Altair, Pinheiro, Jair Marinho before scoring in the goal kept by Castilho.

The impression produced is so enormous that King Pelé then receives an ovation from the whole stadium, despite being much more committed to the cause of Fluminense than of Santos. Journalists lack superlatives to describe the goal. And football fans of images to judge: if the match was filmed, Pelé’s goal was erased from the tape. Despite calls from the King himself, the sequence never resurfaced. We therefore have to content ourselves with the radio commentary of the time,a press cartoon or a reconstitution filmed a posteriori.

We can also look at similar goals which seem as many historical echoes of Pelé’s exploit. There is the one that Lionel Messi registered with Barça against Getafe in 2007. The one scored eight years earlier, in the same jersey, by Ronaldo against Compostela. Or the famous goal scored by Diego Maradona against England, in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup.

November 19, 1969: the 1,000th goal of his career

If there is indeed a goal by Pelé of which there is no shortage of images, it is the one scored to pass the symbolic bar of a thousand achievements during his professional career. However, he did not have much interest: he was scored on a penalty kick, on November 19, 1969, at the Maracanã, during a match between Santos and Vasco da Gama. But all the press was waiting for that and the goals are very numerous when the King rushes to convert a penalty kick that he himself had obtained. The ball enters the goal, Pelé runs to grab it, lifts it like a trophy, is himself carried by the crowd which has invaded the pitch. The match is interrupted for half an hour and resumes without its most illustrious player, still celebrating.

Was it really Pelé’s 1,000th goal? Is he really the record holder for the number of goals ever scored in a career? The subject has not finished making ink flow, as the unofficial count, established by the Brazilian media, is questionable. Moreover, years later, Fifa will attribute this same record to the Austro-Hungarian Josef Bican, who played from 1931 to 1957. Regardless, the Maracanã penalty has become a pious image in the cult dedicated to King Pelé .

June 21, 1970: the goal in the World Cup final against Italy

It’s not necessarily the most beautiful, but it has the power of the symbol. At the climax of a 1970 World Cup where the Brazilian collective performance was brilliant, Pelé scored the first goal of the final against Italy at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City. In the 18th minute of the match, the King rose to the far post to smash a cross from Rivelino with a header. Unstoppable.

Even more beautiful than this first pawn, Pelé will be the author of a marvelous shift for his captain Carlos Alberto on the last goal of the game (Italy will lose 4-1). Pelé and Brazil win their third World Cup after those of 1958 and 1962.

Bonus: June 7, 1970, the goal “marked but saved” by Gordon Banks

The 1970 World Cup was lavish in magical scenes and Pelé was often the actor. In the semi-final against Uruguay, for example, there was a fake body on goalkeeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz. A gesture that allows the Brazilian to eliminate the last defender without even touching the ball. The strike misses a trifle but whatever, this almost goal goes down in history. There was also this other near-goal scored, well no, not scored, we no longer know, in group matches against England, June 7, 1970. Jairzinho overflows on the right side, crosses at the far post, Pelé takes over his defender and violently takes the ball with his head. He scored, that’s for sure, he raises his arms, he exclaims “Gol!”… but the ball was miraculously released by Gordon Banks, the great English goalkeeper.

“I scored a goal for England, but Banks saved it,” Pelé will say. The formula has remained famous, the stop too, considered the most beautiful save ever made by a goalkeeper. No doubt it would not be historic if it had been accomplished against someone other than the Brazilian legend.