8 ms·
Pelé is not seen as a great person in Brazil, from my perspective. People cherish him as the best soccer player in the world, but his personal life is mostly as
by lucis 4y ago
Pelé is not seen as a great person in Brazil, from my perspective. People cherish him as the best soccer player in the world, but his personal life is mostly associated with bad stories.
He has two cases of not recognizing biological daughters, with one of those having died of cancer in 2006 [1]
1 - https://www.sportscasting.com/soccer-star-pele-refused-to-accept-his-biological-daughter-even-when-she-tragically-died-of-cancer/ https://www.sportscasting.com/soccer-star-pele-refused-to-ac...
- philippejara 4y agoAs a brazillian, as I assume you also are, can't help but disagree. The ratio of good to bad is at most 9-1 in my experience, and I say this with no exaggeration. The only time I can remember people really talking shit about his personal was in the ~2013 protests when he called for protesters to watch the cup(?) or something instead of protest, his illegitimate daughter is mostly a footnote when talking about his personal life for better or for worse, the man's affair with xuxa is far more of a topic of discussion.
- baby 4y agoIf he was Brazilian he would have said football not soccer
- CyanBird 4y agoPleas don't pollute hackernews with useless comments Thank you
- grardb 4y agoThis isn't necessarily true. I recently met someone from Brazil who used the word "soccer" when speaking English. As an American living in Europe who's met people from all over the world, I've noticed that it's actually quite common for people to do that if the English they've been exposed to most is American English, especially if that was the dialect they were formally taught. In the case of Brazil, I'm pretty sure that American English is what would be taught in most schools.
- irrational 4y agoI’m American and I say football instead of soccer (I use American Football for the other sport).
- zxexz 4y agoDon’t you find that leads to unnecessary confusion? I use football if I’m out of the US, but in the US I’ve only heard people say soccer unless they’re being pretentious or recently moved here/on holiday.
- wirrbel 4y agoAs a German the game is Fußball (literally: football), but I just regularly say soccer in english because I cannot be bothered into finding out what the people I converse with think that football is and soccer is understood by everyone to be association football, i.e. the sport where the only hand that can be used is t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶a̶r̶a̶d̶o̶n̶a̶ the hand of god.
- philippejara 4y agoI myself end up using soccer at times due to reflex, a mixture of learning american english and never reading/talking about american football hence barely seeing the word football being used, given the vast majority of english speaking media is US-based. It's not as uncommon as it may initially seem.
- wyclif 4y agoPelé certainly has a much better reputation than, say, Maradona.
- emondi 4y agoMaradona was anti-establishment. Compare Pelé with Sócrates for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B3crates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B3crates
- chucke 4y agoMaradona was left-wing friendly, same as Sócrates, which is somehow seen more positively by the crowds. And while Sócrates gets credit for participating at rallies and protests and actually walking the walk, I've never seen Maradona rallying with the people, just benefitting from Cuban public health service. Despite having been a politician, Pelé rarely discussed preferences, as he was aware of repercussions to his image. In that regard, he can be compared with Michael "republicans also buy sneakers too" Jordan.
- thanatropism 4y agos/the crowds/sports journos/
- EL_Loco 4y agoAs a brazilian, I agree with you. Pretty much everybody I know likes Pelé.
- ergocoder 4y ago> People cherish him as the best soccer player in the world Compared to R7 and Messi, Pele's records are mediocre.
- riffraff 4y agohe won 3 world cups, and scored way more league goals compared to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored more overall because they played a crapton of international games, which were not a thing before the Champions League had group stages. Pelé's goal ratio is almost one per match, for 20 freaking years.
- ergocoder 4y agoPlaying for Santos... which was at best the 6th tier league. Meanwhile Messi and Ronaldo are playing at the peak of football in tier-1 leagues where everyone involved spend millions of dollars (if not billions) on science and strategy competing with each other. Are you implying football hasn't progressed at all since Pele stopped playing? Football has progressed a lot in terms of science and strategy. Modern football is of course better than older football. Therefore, modern players are better than old players.
- anonymousDan 4y agoThings were very different in those days in terms of relative league strength. Santos one the world club championship a couple of times back then for example.
- iainmerrick 4y agoBut don’t forget also that football is literally a different game now. The rules around offside, back-passing to the goalie and handball have all been tweaked over the years, and modern strategies have evolved partly in response to that. Fouls are policed much more strictly now than in the past (in the high-profile leagues, at least). I’ll grant you that modern players are likely much fitter, and players from past eras would struggle if thrown into today’s fast-paced game. But today’s players would similarly struggle if forced to play with old heavy shoes, irregular balls, bumpy pitch, etc.
- cca778 4y ago> Pelé is not seen as a great person in Brazil, from my perspective Your perspective is not the same of lots of sportswomen/men, public figures, traditional/web media outlets and a crowd of anonymous people praising him right now. I wish brazilians would be less demanding with our idols.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- verdenti 4y ago[dead]
- HeavyStorm 4y agoBrazilian here. Disagree. The only recurrent joke about him is that he was a ad boy for Viagra.
- coliveira 4y agoThis is not even close to be true. Pele was not without his flaws, but every Brazilian appreciates his greatness in Football. It is even difficult to find a Brazilian who doesn't consider him the greatest player ever.