Pele, arguably the greatest footballer of all time, was Brazil’s all-time leading scorer, with 77 goals in 92 matches for his country.
The three-time World Cup winner embodied the idea of football as “the beautiful game”, one played with skill, speed, and imagination.
Early life
Pele was born into a poor family in Tres Coracoes in southern Brazil on 23 October 1940.
His full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, which, he revealed in a 2014 tweet, was in honour of US inventor Thomas Edison, because electricity had just been introduced to his hometown.
He took on the nickname Pele while at school.
His father, Dondinho, was a minor league footballer, who taught his sons to play and his brother, Zoca, also played for Brazilian side Santos.
Early career and the 1958 World Cup
Image: Pic: AP
Pele joined Santos at 15, and at the same age, he made his senior debut in 1956.
He won a place in the national team squad for the 1958 World Cup, held in Sweden and, at just 17, scored twice in the final as they beat the hosts 5-2.
Pele became the tournament’s youngest goalscorer and remained the only 17-year-old to score in the World Cup.
1962, 1966 and 1970
Image: Pele opens the scoring in the final of the 1970 World Cup
Injury restricted his contribution to Brazil’s triumph in 1962 in Chile, and he was heavily marked in the 1966 competition in England, where he suffered repeated, sometimes brutal, fouls.
But he was player of the tournament four years later, as Brazil assembled one of the greatest sides ever and lifted the Jules Rimet trophy in Mexico.
Led by Carlos Alberto, the team featuring the likes of Jairzinho, Tostao and Rivellino, defeated Italy 4-1 in the final.
What made him great?
Image: Pic: AP
Like many of those considered among the game’s all-time greats, Pele was relatively short, at around 5ft 7in (1.73m).
But what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in skill, with both feet, pace, strength, and heading ability.
The centre-forward’s achievements are even more remarkable given he played in an era when skilful players were routinely fouled out of games, with referees often reluctant to send off or even book offenders.
No out-and-out striker, some of his most famous moments were not goals at all.
In the 1970 World Cup, there was an attempt from the halfway line against Czechoslovakia, an outrageous dummy against Uruguay, and a downward header somehow saved by England goalkeeper Gordon Banks.
Club football – Santos
Pele spent 18 years at Santos, where he is the all-time leading goalscorer.
He helped them to six league titles, including five in a row from 1961, as well as two victories in the Copa Libertadores, considered to be the closest thing South America has to the Champions League.
New York Cosmos
Pele ended his playing days at New York Cosmos and retired from football in 1977.
Such was his impact in the US and the nascent North American Soccer League (NASL), more than 75,000 fans crammed into the New York’s Giants Stadium for his final game, fittingly against Santos.
He was a prolific scorer in the NASL, leading Cosmos to the title in his last season.
His star power helped to establish the world’s biggest sport in a country which, until then, had largely ignored it.
Goals controversy
Image: Pic: AP
There is much dispute over the number of goals he scored during his career, which Guinness World Records places at 1,279.
However, many critics believe that figure is too high, boosted by hundreds scored in friendlies and practice matches.
Including those, he scored at almost a goal a game throughout his 22-year career.
Others put his overall total at 757 goals, although Santos say his tally was closer to 1,000.
This would make him the highest-ever scorer for a single major club.
In 2013, he was awarded the FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur (award of honour) in recognition of his career and achievements.
As a modern comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo, notched his 800th goal from 1,095 official senior appearances for clubs and country in December 2021.
Personal life
Image: Pele poses for photographers before a news conference on an exhibition about his life called ‘The Marks of the King’
Pele was married three times, on the last occasion to businesswoman and entrepreneur Marcia Aoki, in 2016.
He fathered seven known children, but admitted in 2021 that he had so many affairs, he couldn’t be sure what the real total was.
2014 World Cup
Image: Pele attends a news conference to present the FIFA World Cup global ‘Trophy Tour’ in Paris, 10 March, 2014
Since retiring, Pele has been Brazil’s sports minister and acted as an ambassador for football.
He was an honorary ambassador for Brazil at the 2014 World Cup, which was held in his home country.
But before the tournament started, he angered many of his fellow Brazilians by criticising the timing of anti-corruption protests, telling demonstrators they could spoil the event.
The greatest?
Football fans love to debate who is the greatest of all time, with many believing Diego Maradona, Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi have greater claim to the title than Pele.
But Sky Sports football commentator Martin Tyler disagrees, saying “for me he [Pele] is the greatest player of all time”.
“One of my early jobs outside of television was to put the English voice on a VHS, as it was in those days, of his Brazil career and his 1,000 goals,” he said.
“If I had any doubts about how good he was, that video proved it. It was a privilege to do that and pay tribute to a man who could do so much more than score goals.
“He will always be remembered for the ability to score amazing goals in terrible conditions on bumpy pitches, when players had more licence to use all means to stop him. He was irresistible.
“Undoubtedly for me, he will always be the greatest and in the football world he is immortal.”
A man inside Mandalay has told Sky News bodies remain under “collapsed and inclining” buildings after the Myanmar earthquake – as a woman was freed from rubble after 91 hours.
The local inside Myanmarsaid many of the structures in the city were wrecked or badly damaged after the 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday, adding: “There are some bodies, some dead bodies, that still remain and other destruction”.
Meanwhile, in a televised address, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said the number of dead had risen to 2,719 and is expected to exceed 3,000.
Some 4,521 people have been injured, while a further 441 are missing.
More than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, the World Health Organisation said.
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Before and after: Myanmar earthquake
Smell of dead bodies near destroyed buildings
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was close to the quake’s epicentre, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations said.
The local in the city told Sky News that “a lot of local assistance associations like charity groups are still struggling with digging out the corpses, the dead bodies, from the destruction”.
He said that “when we pass near the destructions, the collapsed building or very damaged building, we can smell” dead bodies.
“The smell of the dead bodies after four days… it still remains,” he said, before adding: “For the social assistance association… they need permission [to give aid] especially from the government.
“If they don’t have permission, then they cannot do anything.”
Image: People sheltering in a makeshift tent camp in Mandalay. Pic: Reuters
He also said others in Mandalay are struggling after the earthquake, which followed the city being affected by cyclones, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the civil war in Myanmar – where a junta seized power in a coup in 2021.
“Some people, they say they have nothing at all,” the local added. “They have no more home, they have no more belongings, because its already damaged.”
Woman freed after 91 hours under rubble
It comes after the fire department in Myanmar’s capital freed a woman trapped under rubble 91 hours after the building collapsed.
The 63-year-old woman was freed early on Tuesday in Naypyidaw.
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As the country continues to recover, a worker from the International Rescue Committee said people fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields.
Communities are struggling to meet basic needs such as access to clean water and sanitation, and emergency teams are working “tirelessly” to locate survivors and provide aid, the UN said in a report.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by the civil war, as rebel groups say the junta has conducted airstrikes, even after the quake, while NGOs fear that certain areas could be denied vital supplies.
“Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active,” said Joe Freeman, a researcher with Amnesty Myanmar.
“It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments.”
The father of a paramedic killed by Israel in Gaza has told Sky News he would have been on the mission to rescue wounded colleagues, but was ill that day and so his son went instead.
“It was supposed to be me, you know. I was on duty that night but fell ill and sent him in my place.”
Speaking at his son’s funeral, Hassan Abu Hileh said Israel is to blame for the death of Mohammed and the other 14 men.
Image: Hassan Abu Hileh’s son Mohammed was killed when Israeli forces said they ‘opened fire on suspicious vehicles’
“We need protection from the international community. We need protection for medical teams. We are medics-soldiers of duty, not armed fighters. We carry out humanitarian work. If I see someone who needs medical attention, I’m obligated to serve them,” he said.
The bodies of the Red Crescent and United Nations workers went missing around eight days ago. Despite repeated requests to search for them, all denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the UN eventually found 14 bodies buried under sand in a mass grave. One is still missing.
They were still wearing their uniforms.
Image: Funerals took place on Monday for medics killed in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
The director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza has accused Israel of murdering the emergency workers. “We arrived at the scene of the crime to retrieve the bodies and found that all of them had been shot directly in the upper part of their bodies and buried,” said Dr Bashir Murad.
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“The ambulances were also destroyed and buried.”
Image: Dr Bashir Murad, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, said the workers had been shot
The bodies were found in sand in the south of the Gaza Strip in what Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, called a “mass grave”, marked with the emergency light from a crushed ambulance.
Mr Whittall posted pictures and video of Red Crescent teams digging in the sand for the bodies and workers laying them out on the ground, covered in plastic sheets.
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Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has denied killing innocent medical workers and said Israeli forces opened fire on suspicious vehicles that were travelling without coordination and in an active combat zone.
“The IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23,” claimed a spokesman.
“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles.
“Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route.”
We have asked the IDF why the bodies were found in a mass grave but have received no comment.
More than 400 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the UN.
According to the UN, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The UN is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third because of safety concerns.
China’s military has said it’s begun joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan.
It said the exercises were intended to “serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence”, and called the self-governed island’s president a “parasite”.
China considers Taiwan to be its own territory and has threatened to use force to gain control.
Image: A poster accompanying the drills titled ‘Closing In’. Pic: Eastern Theater Command
Its military released a poster entitled “Closing In”, showing Chinese ships and fighter jets circling the island and the words “sinister moves of Taiwan separatists courting disaster upon themselves”.
It comes after the Taiwanese president, President Lai Ching-Te, called China a “foreign hostile force” last month.
He announced measures including a proposal to re-instate a military court system in response to a perceived growth in Chinese infiltration of Taiwanese society and “grey-zone” tactics.
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Announcing the joint exercises, China’s eastern theatre command depicted the president as a cartoon bug held by a pair of chopsticks above a burning Taiwan.
“Parasite poisoning Taiwan island. Parasite hollowing Island out. Parasite courting ultimate destruction,” the animation said.
Footage also showed the capital Taipei being aimed at from above and military vehicles patrolling the streets.
Image: An image of Taiwan from above. Pic: Eastern Theatre Command/Reuters
The eastern theatre command said on its official WeChat social media account: “The focus is on exercises such as combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes.”
Taiwan’s defence ministry said China’s Shandong aircraft carrier group had entered its response area and it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period.
It said the group had dispatched military aircraft and ships and activated land-based missile systems in response.
There is no doubt Beijing is seizing an opportunity here.
The recent hardening of both rhetoric and policy from Taiwan’s president provides an opening for China, not just to practise blockade scenarios and sow feelings of insecurity among Taiwanese, but crucially also to test the resolve of the island’s longstanding backer, the US.
It has been a nervous few months in Taipei as they’ve watched President Trump row back support for Ukraine.
An initial reluctance from the new administration to provide clear condemnation or pushback will have ultimately emboldened Beijing.
However, there have been a few hints in recent days that Washington may ultimately be coming back in behind Taiwan; the hardening of language in a few key statements, a visit by Alaska’s governor and the quiet release of $870m of previously frozen military aid, to name just a few.
Exactly where Trump stands on the Taiwan question is still unclear, he remains a volatile and transactional actor.
It is not impossible, for instance, that Taiwan’s future could be used as a bargaining chip within some future wide-reaching deal with China.
Today’s drills will serve as a test for all involved. Is US resolve indeed hardening, to what extent, and how publicly?
Either way, an intense period of cross-strait relations feels inevitable.
“The Chinese Communist Party has continued to increase its military activities around Taiwan and in the Indo-Pacific region… and has become the biggest ‘troublemaker’ in the international community,” the statement added.
The drills come two weeks after a large exercise in mid-March, when Beijing sent a large number of drones and ships towards the island.