He always got his head over a bouncing ball, keeping the shot down. Pele’s only World Cup hat-trick came in the semi-final, a 5-2 win over France.

Pelé was a disrupter in the way that mattered most to him: He expanded the limits of the possible. But what did he really think about what soccer had become?

Yet in Santos, Brazil, where Pelé shot to stardom and spent much of his career, his death hit like nowhere else, the loss more personal and intimate. ... See more on: Pele. Read 20 Comments. 20.

Pele, in 2012, posing in front of a photo of his famous bicycle kick attempt from a 1965 friendly between Brazil and Belgium. ... None more so than the shot of Pelé levitating upside-down, ...

Pelé ’s first goal was the most impressive — he lobbied the ball over a defender inside the area before striking a firm shot from near the penalty spot. LAST IN A FINAL When: June 21, 1970.

Pele won the World Cup three times with his country - in 1958, 1962 and 1970 Whenever there is debate about who is the greatest player of all time, one name is a given on the list - Pele. The ...

By the time you read this I don’t know if Pele, 82, will be alive. But as I wrote, he was in Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital, fading from colon cancer and blood disorders. I was still wet ...

Pele had been relatively quiet but his influence on the game grew and grew. A brilliant, gliding run was ended by a crude tackle, a first-time shot denied by a scrambling Uruguayan keeper, another ...

Pelé, Charismatic Master of the “Beautiful Game,” Dies at 82. The Brazilian superstar played in four World Cups and was the only player to win three, in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

HE WAS JUST a kid, aged 17. Yet in the World Cup final of 1958 Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known by his nickname of Pelé, showed the poise and supreme skill that would become the ...