Former CSKA football player Ponomarev: Despite global popularity, Pele was modest
MOSCOW, December 30 – RIA Novosti, Vasily Bogdanov. Former football player of Moscow CSKA and the USSR national team Vladimir Ponomarev told RIA Novosti that Brazilian Pele is on a par with composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and poet Alexander Pushkin.
Pele died on Thursday, aged 83, after a long illness.
“Pele did everything better than the others – he thought faster, he had better control of the ball, he had equal possession of both his right and left feet. The ball was literally tied to him with a string. What can I say? He’s truly unique, a football genius.” There will never be such a football player again in our lifetime. Like Pyotr Tchaikovsky in music or Alexander Pushkin in poetry, ”said Ponomarev.
Pelé (full name – Edson Arantes do Nascimento) is the only football player in history to be a three-time world champion (1958, 1962, 1970). The Brazilian national team, who scored 77 goals in 92 matches, shares it with Neymar, the top scorer in its history. At club level, Pelé represented Brazilian Santos for 18 years, played three more years for the American New York Cosmos, ending his career in 1977. Pele is included in the Guinness Book of Records for the most goals in his professional career – according to some reports, the Brazilian scored 1281 goals.
In September 2021, he was diagnosed with a colon tumor. In 2022, he was hospitalized twice at Albert Einstein Hospital for activities related to the treatment of three malignant tumors (bowel, liver and lung) and a urinary tract infection. On November 30, 2022, Pele was hospitalized with general body edema, heart failure, and confusion.
Source: Ria
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