The pauper who became king
by Adriano G. Teixeira
"I write this today to dismiss a famous saying which goes: "Nobody's perfect." I know someone who's perfect. As a matter of fact, the whole world knows him, and perhaps even a few extraterrestrial beings do as well. It's easy to identify and prove a human being's perfection by carefully observing a few quotes, such as the following. A headline from the Sunday Times, a London newspaper: "How do you spell Pelé? G-O-D." How about the quote attributed to Jimmy Carter, president of the USA, on being introduced to the aforementioned figure of perfection? "Nice to meet you, I'm Jimmy Carter. You need no introductions."
Numbers are more representative, but the quotes that surround the name of the player elected Athlete of The Century in nine different surveys provide an air of royalty and renown never before granted to anyone. What Brazilian citizen doesn't swell with pride upon reading quotes such as these? "I thought to myself: he's flesh and blood, just like everyone else. I was wrong." (Tarcísio Burgnich, Italian defender in the 1970 World Cup) There's more: "The greatest soccer player in the world was Di Stefano. I refuse to classify Pelé as a player. He's above everything else." (Puskas, Hungarian star who dominated the soccer world in the early '50s) That's not perfection enough? Have you heard of the "Dutch Carousel" from the '74 World Cup? Well, its commander, the notable Johan Cruyff, fired off the following quote, to the surprise of the proud Dutch: "Pelé is the only one that goes beyond the boundaries of logic." Maybe one of the most iconic quotes regarding Negrão, as Pelé was also called, is the one from Sigge Parling, the Swedish defender assigned to cover Pelé in the '58 World Cup final: "After the fifth goal, all I wanted to do was applaud him."
Some stats are inevitable. As such, how do you classify an athlete that led all scorers in the São Paulo Championship 11 times- 8 of them in a row? A scorer is at the top of the world when he hits the mark of 500 career goals. The King hit this mark at 22 years of age.
Certainly, there's room for doubt concerning the veracity of some stories circulated about Pelé, for they're true evidence of the perfection of this athlete, who in 1970, caused Mexico's commerce to suddenly shut down in the middle of a work day. The signs on the doors read: "Won't be openingtoday - we're off to see the King." For those of you who like this sort of story, two or three others belong in this informal chat.
1) "In Rome, the greatest player in the world, Pelé, and a fan." That was The Observer's headline in March of 1966. Next to the headline, a picture of Pelé next to Pope Paul VI. The picture had been taken during the King's meeting with the Pope in the Vatican library, a place reserved for meeting with statesmen. During the meeting, the Pope related intimate knowledge of soccer and Pelé's life. In turn, the King revealed his religious side, admitting to Paul VI that in his childhood, he'd been an altar boy at the Santa Terezinha Church in Bauru.
2) The year is 1969. Who else but Pelé could interrupt and halt a civil war in Africa, between the Kinshasa and Brazzavilla forces in the former Belgian Congo. Santos had agreed to play a game in Brazzaville, months before the conflict broke out. Before their arrival, the Santos delegation travels through Kinshasa, escorted by local soldiers who transfer them to the enemy forces in the river crossing that separates the two regions. The day after the game, the team returns to Kinshasa, and are formally warned that they can only leave after they play another game, on their side. Santos plays, Pelé bathes in the fans' adoration, and the team makes their way back home. Only then does the war resume.
3) In the El Campin Stadium in Colombia, Santos and the Millonarios face off on the field. This match is the main attraction in today's schedule, but the referee nearly spoils the event. The ref dismisses one of Pelé's goals as invalid. The King is spitting mad, and complains until the ref ejects him from the game. Livid, the packed crowd in the stadium threatens to tear down the fence that separates them, and begins hurling objects onto the field and setting fire to the stands. Fearing a tragedy, the police gently removes the ref, forces him to exit stage right, promotes one of the sideline judges to take his place and brings Pelé back to the game, who ends up scoring three more goals. Final score: Santos 5 x 1 Millonarios.
What about the magical moment of his thousandth goal? I believe the soccer gods planned out this penalty shot, so that the hundreds of cameras circling the world's biggest stage could perfectly focus on that once-in-a-lifetime moment. For an instant on the night of November 19, 1969, the ball was a mere supporting player for a man who, with his feet, left not only a record in sporting history, but the certainty that we were looking at the greatest athlete of the century."
we seriously need to watch the spotlighting. Copying wikipedia without editting won't work for most of these picks. I actually recomend a
for spotlighting. Not sure what it should be, but it's annoying. (nothing personal Bobby, there's been spotlighting elsewhere, some of which hasn't been brought up)
We'll have to see how it plays out, but I believe this statement will end up being true. Right now the other Intellectuals are Franklin (polymath who is hard to categorize) and Machiavelli; we'll see if Marxx stays in the Philosopher category.
group amongst us, and those of us trying to draft see pick after pick coming off the board, forcing to say 
