In addition to his heroics in global soccer, Nigerian history will be kind to Pele in some ways as he was so good an Apostle of the ‘beautiful game’ that he caused a temporary ceasefire during the Nigerian Civil War in 1969 so fans could watch him play.
The Brazilian football legend, Edson Arantes Do Nascimento popularly known as “Pelé”, passed away at the age of 82 years on Thursday.
Before curtains fell on Pelé’s life and times, his good gestures off the pitch are perhaps, the more reason why he’s widely revered as the greatest Ambassador that the ‘beautiful game’ has ever produced. Afterall, that was his catchy phrase that has stuck till today.
One of such many credits, The New Diplomat reports, is how he mysteriously caused a ceasefire during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.
Pele, alongside his other teammates, Pepe, Coutinho and the rest of the club’s Santasticos had dominated South American football in the early 1960s winning five straight Brazilian championships, the Copa Libertadores twice and two Intercontinental Cups over European heavyweights Benfica and AC Milan in that glittering period.
With Pele as their star attraction, the club began pulling out of the Libertadores in order to travel the world, embarking upon tours of the United States (1966), sub-Saharan Africa, Italy and Germany (1967), and Argentina (1968), where they participated in a pentagonal tournament in Boca Juniors’ Bombonera that also included Benfica, River Plate and Uruguay’s Nacional.
The beginning of 1969, then, saw the Brazilian team heading to Africa with Pele in tow once more, even though the continent was in the throes of bloody upheaval.
A brutal conflict had broken out two years earlier between Nigeria and a secessionist state, Biafra, a civil war based upon the wishes of the Igbo people to break away from the country.
In the war which lasted over two years, an estimated two million civilians lost their lives and up to 4.5m were displaced from their homes, before Biafra was eventually reintegrated into Nigeria.
In the midst of war, Santos arrived right in Lagos, Nigeria to play a match on January 26. However, when Pele & Co. rolled into town, the guns fell silent.
For 48 hours, Nigeria and Biafra held a ceasefire, during which Santos drew 2-2 with the Super Eagles, known then as the Green Eagles, with Pele scoring both goals and receiving a standing ovation from the home fans.
The Brazilian club side also traveled to then Bendel State Benin and played another exhibition against the Nigerian team.
According to reports, the then state Military Governor Samuel Ogbemudia declared a public holiday and opened up the bridge that connected Benin with Biafra.
About 25,000 fans trooped into the stadium to watch the historic match where Pele led his team to a 2-1 win over Nigeria.
Just after Pele’s team left Nigeria, hostilities resumed again.
The iconic football legend breathed his last after struggling with his health. He had been receiving treatment at the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, due to his advanced colon cancer, which prompted him to be under elevated care due to kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.
In his lifetime, Pele commanded huge respects, all thanks to his extraordinary football career.
Pele’s spectacular career was filled with lots of logic-defying feats that are unlikely to ever be repeated. He is the only player both alive and dead to boast of over 1000 career goals and three World Cup wins.
The striker goes down as perhaps the greatest to ever play the game, having won three World Cups in 1958, 1962 and 1970. He is Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 77 goals in 92 caps.
During his club career, he played near to 700 games for Santos over 18 years between 1956 and 1974, scoring more than 650 goals. He left the club for New York Cosmos after lifting 25 pieces of domestic silverware.
Including friendlies, Pele netted 1,279 goals in 1,363 matches in all, which is recognised as a Guinness World Record. After two years in the USA, he hung his boots up for good in 1976.
Among several accolades, Pele was voted World Player of the Century in 2000 and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. He received the first-ever FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur in 2014, whilst analysis showed he would have won the Ballon d’Or a record seven times if it had existed during his career.
In death, Pele is even more widely celebrated as a video in circulation now revealed to millennials and people of other generations who didn’t watch him play that whatever the Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldo, Messi and Mbappe, etall of this world had done or are still doing on the field of play, Pele had done them all before with much flair, gusto and distinction.
