When Pelé praised an Alianza player and said that “he would have been the King of football”

The ‘king’ of football, the Brazilian Peledied this Thursday at the age of 82, announced his family and the hospital in Sao Paulo where he was treated for cancer.

His name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but football made him its “king” and history will remember him with a universal diminutive: Pelé. Paradoxically, it is the black and white images that best capture all the light and brightness that this genius gave to football, closing a life of ’10’ this Thursday when he died in Sao Paulo at the age of 82.

On June 29, 1958, the world was stunned by this 17-year-old who scored two goals in the World Cup final against Sweden, in Solna, to give Brazil (5-2) its first title.

The speed of his shots, dribbles, technique, were to take off his hat. Skilled with both feet, powerful scoring with a header like nobody else at the time despite his modest 1.72 m, his figure allowed Brazilian soccer to become the “samba soccer” acclaimed throughout the world.

Who did Pelé praise when he faced Alianza Lima?

Precisely, his football would make him face the Alianza Lima of yesteryear in the 60s. Likewise, I would highlight the game of a legend of our Peruvian football.

“If Perico had been born in Brazil, he would have been the King of football and not me”, Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Pelé’ came to say after a friendly in 1966 between Santos and Alianza.