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.”
The IDF has admitted to mistakenly identifying a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.
The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.
The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.
But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.
In a briefing from the IDF, they said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.
Image: Palestinians mourning the medics after their bodies were recovered. Pic: Reuters
An IDF surveillance aircraft was watching the movement of the ambulances and notified troops on the ground. The IDF said it will not be releasing that footage.
When the ambulances arrived, the soldiers opened fire, thinking the medics were a threat, according to the IDF.
The soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road and several people getting out quickly and running, the IDF claimed, adding the soldiers were unaware the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.
An Israeli military official would not say how far away troops were when they fired on the vehicles.
The IDF acknowledged that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.
The newly emerged video footage showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on, the IDF said.
The IDF added that there will be a re-investigation to look into this discrepancy.
Image: The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen – with three red light vehicles visible in front
Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the IDF said in its briefing this is an approved and regular practice to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.
The IDF could not explain why the ambulances were also buried.
The IDF said six of the 15 people killed were linked to Hamas, but revealed no detail to support the claim.
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1:22
Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The newly emerged footage of the incident was discovered on a phone belonging to one of the workers who was killed, PRCS president Dr Younis Al Khatib said.
“His phone was found with his body and he recorded the whole event,” he said. “His last words before being shot, ‘Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives’.”
Sky News used an aftermath video and satellite imagery to verify the location and timing of the newly emerged footage of the incident.
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2:43
Aid worker attacks increasing
It was filmed on 23 March north of Rafah and shows a convoy of marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle travelling south along a road towards the city centre. All the vehicles visible in the convoy have their flashing lights on.
The footage was filmed early in the morning, with a satellite image seen by Sky News taken at 9.48am local time on the same day showing a group of vehicles bunched together off the road.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the US over its “weak” response to lethal Russian attacks on his hometown on Friday.
President Zelenskyy posted a lengthy and emotional statement on X about Russia’s strikes on Kryvyi Rih, which killed 19 people.
Meanwhile Ukrainian drones hit an explosives factory in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight strike, a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters.
In his post, President Zelenskyy accused the United States of being “afraid” to name-check Russia in its comment on the attack.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,” he wrote on X.
“They are even afraid to say the word “Russian” when talking about the missile that killed children.”
America’s ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink had written on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih.
“More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”
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Strike on Zelenskyy’s home city
President Zelenskyy went on in his post to say: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
“We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it. We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire.”
Grandmother ‘burned to death in her home’
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council, said the missile attack, followed by a drone attack, had killed 19 people, including nine children.
“The Iskander-M missile strike with cluster munitions at the children’s playground in the residential area, to make the shrapnel fly further apart, killed 18 people.
“One grandmother was burnt to death in her house after Shahed’s direct hit.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military gathering in a restaurant – an assertion rebutted by the Ukrainian military as misinformation.
“The missile hit right on the street – around ordinary houses, a playground, shops, a restaurant,” President Zelenskyy wrote.
Mr Zelenskyy also detailed the child victims of the attack including “Konstantin, who will be 16 forever” and “Arina, who will also be 7 forever”.
The UK’s chief of the defence staff Sir Tony Radakin said he had met the Ukrainian leader on Friday, along with French armed forces leader General Thierry Burkhard.
“Britain and France are coming together & Europe is stepping up in a way that is real & substantial, with 200 planners from 30 nations working to strengthen Ukraine’s long term security,” Sir Tony wrote.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.