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truddles t1_j2o1vdn wrote

Reply to comment by Ray_Pingeau in Brazilians to bid final farewell to Pelé with 24-hour wake and coffin procession by ladyem8

I know nothing about soccer and very little about sports. Why do you think he's the most important sports icon of all time?

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Ray_Pingeau t1_j2o3x35 wrote

A country held a cease fire to watch a player play soccer who isn’t even from Nigeria. What other sports star playing a game was the result of a cease fire? People literally stopped killing each other to watch him play.

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Jestersage t1_j2ovdtq wrote

There's a few others, but that's over 2000 years ago, but that's original Olympic games, with fear/respect of greek gods in people.

...did I basically equate Pele to a greek god? I will take it.

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ladyem8 OP t1_j2o2zfl wrote

I’m not being rude at all, but I’d literally just Google him. Maybe check out his Wikipedia page. There’s probably too much to fit into a single Reddit comment. But it’s worth searching out :)

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YoxScorpion t1_j2o980y wrote

Probably because football is the most popular sport in the world. Think about the icon that is Michael Jordan. Except that much more people watch and play football than basketball or any other sport. Pele made the number 10 special, only player to win the World Cup three times (his first one at only 17 years old), more than a thousand goals etc. He was clearly dominant over his peers, made the game look beautiful and got more people to get interest over the game. Every kid knows who is Pele and gets inspired on him, even when they didnt see a game of him.

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