Brazilian Legend ‘Pele’ dies at 82

Lionel Messi paid his tribute…


On 29th December, The Great Pele passed away. Argentina captain Lionel Messi has paid his respect to him.

The Brazilian legend has been struggling with health-related issues for the past couple of weeks and spent Christmas in the hospital too. On Thursday night, Pele's social media team announced that the three-time World Cup winner had passed away.

"Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pelé, who peacefully passed away today. On his journey, Edson enchanted the world with his genius in sport, stopped a war, carried out social works all over the world and spread what he most believed to be the cure for all our problems: love."

"His message becomes a legacy for coming generations."

"Love, love and love, forever," read the statement on Pele's social media handles.

Millions have been paying their respect to the 82-year-old and Messi has joined in too. The Argentina captain wrote the message rest in peace and also shared a few pictures of him alongside the football idol.

Rest in peace, @pele.

Earlier on, Neymar Jr. and Cristiano Ronaldo also penned messages to the late great football idol. Neymar said that Pele changed football and turned it into art. The Brazilian star said Pele gave voice to the poor and gave visibility to Brazil.

"Before Pelé, 10 was just a number. I’ve read this phrase somewhere, at some point in my life. But this sentence, beautiful, is incomplete. I would say before Pelé, football was just a sport. Pelé has changed it all. He turned football into art, into entertainment Gave voice to the poor, blacks and mostly, Gave visibility to Brazil.Soccer and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He's gone but his magic remains. Pelé is FOREVER!!" wrote Neymar in his Instagram post.

 

The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.