It would be difficult for any human being to measure precisely what it meant to be Pelé. It is a name and a face immediately recognized over six decades anywhere in the world, something virtually impossible for other people, including monarchs, political and religious leaders, artists, and other sportsmen.

Overexposed long before the era of overexposure, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, originally from Três Corações, in Minas Gerais, who died this Thursday (29) at the age of 82, practically transmuted himself into a separate entity, as he himself liked to say, in a blague tone.

The importance of this entity went far beyond the four lines of the football field.

From the point of view of a country with very limited influence at the international level, it is necessary to point out immediately: Pelé was the Brazilian person who achieved the greatest worldwide notoriety and importance at any time. His name was mixed up with Brazil's name, sometimes boosting him into recognition, when it did not surpass him.

For football, a human creation of unique scope, Pelé was the right person at the right time. His period of greatest fame coincided with a moment of accelerated expansion of the sport across the borders of all continents, stimulated by the technological evolution of television broadcasts and by the action of FIFA, the entity that rules the sport.

Affable, ambitious, intelligent, citizen of the world, he played the role of the star with gusto. He paved the way for football in what was then the most important consumer market on the planet, the North American one.

He became a frequent face in many forms of media: sports broadcasts, journalism, advertising, cinema, music, comics, and visual arts.

He entered the field of politics and held the post of extraordinary Minister of Sport from 1995 to 1998, in the first term of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB). The so-called Pelé Law dates from this period, which, among other things, improved the labor relationship between clubs and players in Brazil, putting an end to the instrument known as 'the pass'.

In football politics, Pelé played the game that interested him the most, receiving well-deserved criticism for that. He allied himself with another Brazilian, João Havelange, who engaged in a project of power over world football that lasted 24 years and served an extensive and documented web of corruption. In exchange, the mythical athlete received shelter in the propagation of his image around the world.

Pelé did business. He was involved in a shady episode with Unicef, which resulted in $700,000 being diverted to a private account, money he promised to return, then backtracked. He tried to launch an independent football league in Brazil, which failed like so many other attempts. He negotiated TV rights with football moguls.

He was criticized for playing too small a role in the fight against racism. Although legitimate, the choice was not immune to regret, especially since he came from the country that received the largest population of black slaves in the Americas.

Another frequent flank of questions came from personal life choices, in which Edson experienced public love relationships and known dramas involving his children.

None of the above erases one fact: in terms of sport, Pelé was never a marketing creation. His accomplishments speak for themselves. The only player to win three World Cups and also the youngest champion, aged 17 in 1958.

Author of 1,283 goals in 1,365 games — and other non-goals that only he could turn into historic ones. A performer from the fundamentals up to perfection. Playmaker. The sport was simply never the same after him.

The statements about Pelé are countless, famous, and eloquent. Three of them, said by personalities from different countries and professions, help to define such an unusual person.

In charge of marking him in the 1970 World Cup final match, the Italian Tarcisio Burgnich would say after the game: "I thought to myself: He is made of flesh and blood like me. I was wrong". The Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade said: "The difficult thing, the extraordinary thing is not scoring a thousand goals like Pelé. It's scoring a goal like Pelé".

On one of his many visits to the White House, the three-time world football champion heard from the president: "My name is Ronald Reagan, I'm the president of the United States of America. But you don't need to introduce yourself, because everyone knows who Pelé is." Reagan's phrase derives from an account by Pelé himself. Anyone who finds it exaggerated can see, on video, when the two leave for the White House garden, that the American leader reformulates the joke for an audience of children. But it wouldn't matter if it was an invention.

The legends about the Brazilian player are so many and of such magnitude that they get mixed up with an equally unbelievable reality, so it doesn't matter. After all, it is indisputable that everyone knows who Pelé was.

editoriais@grupofolha.com.br

Translated by Cassy Dias