Pele, a football legend and icon from Brazil, died at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer.
He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but everyone called him "Pele." Many people think he was the best football player ever. He was amazing because he scored 77 goals in only 92 international games for Brazil. He was also part of three world-famous teams that won the World Cup from 1958 to 1970.
During his 21-year domestic career, Pele only played for two clubs. In 1956, he made his debut for the team he grew up with, Santos. He played 636 games for Santos before spending two years with the now-defunct New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. By the time he quit playing in 1976, he had scored 655 goals for his club in 700 games.
In 2000, Pele was named the World Player of the Century and one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine. In 2014, he won the first-ever FIFA Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur, and research showed that he would have won the Ballon d'Or a record seven times if it had been around during his career.
In 2021, it was reported that Pele had surgery to remove a tumor from the right side of his colon. In September of that year, he also started chemotherapy. In recent weeks, though, his condition seemed to have gotten worse after someone said that his "tumor had progressed."
After beating South Korea in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup, Brazil's players held up a banner with his name and picture to honor Pele.
On December 21, his daughter Kely Nascimento wrote: "We can't have Christmas at home this year. We agreed with the doctors that it would be better for us to stay here with our new family at Einstein because of all the care they give us."