Pelé (81) looks at the Atlantic Ocean every day. The best footballer of all time is spending the twilight years of his life in the fashionable Brazilian seaside resort of Guarujá. His villa, which he rarely leaves, is on the posh 1.8-kilometer-long Praia de Pernambuco beach. Pelé, one of the greatest sports heroes of the last century, suffers physically and mentally because his medical file is getting thicker and thicker.
Pelé has an intestinal tumor!
On August 30, 2021, the three-time world champion went to the “Albert Einstein” hospital in São Paulo for the annual check-up, which he had canceled a year earlier due to the pandemic. The ulcer was discovered, and the operation followed five days later. However, it was not an easy operation. Pelé spent a total of 30 days in the hospital. After being released in October, therapy continued at home in Guarujá.
On December 8, Pelé had to go back to the hospital for a follow-up examination. He wasn’t allowed to leave until the day before Christmas Eve. In the final medical bulletin it says: “The patient is stable and will continue the treatment of the colon tumor.” So Pelé continues to fight to avoid getting cancer.
Before Christmas, Pelé personally addressed his 7.9 million followers via Instagram. Featuring a bedside photograph, sitting upright, left and right hands clenched in a combative cheering pose. Those around him try everything in public to show Pelé as a happy, always in a good mood. But the truth is different. Pele suffers. You can see that on his face too. This is marked by the hardships of the past few years, it is pale.
In his unique career, Pelé enchanted the world with tricks and goals. His laughter was contagious and put everyone in a good mood. In 2016 he married Marcia Aoki, who was 25 years his junior, it is his third marriage. They have been a couple since 2012.
But Pelé’s health has been deteriorating for years. His last public appearance was in May 2019 when he met former US President Barack Obama (60) in São Paulo. A month earlier he was in Paris at a meeting organized by main sponsor Hublot (watches) with France’s world champion Kylian Mbappé (23). During the trip to Europe, Pelé ended up in the hospital because of a kidney stone disease, the treatment was continued after returning to Brazil in a hospital in São Paulo.
In 2014 Pelé had to go to the dialysis machine because of a kidney infection. It became known that a kidney had been removed from him when he was a player at Cosmos New York (1975 to 1977). In 2015, Pelé also underwent prostate surgery.
He has been struggling with long-term consequences of his career for many years. In 2012 he got a new hip, and there were problems with the subsequent rehabilitation. A short time later, an operation on the spine followed. Pelé, who once made opponents dizzy, has not been able to walk properly for six years.
In 2016 he had to return the invitation to the National Olympic Committee to light the fire at the Rio de Janeiro Games. At the World Cup group draw in December 2017 in Moscow, Pelé only came on stage in a wheelchair because he couldn’t walk the long distances in the Kremlin Theater on his crutches. At the tournament six months later he was not there. He missed a World Cup for the first time since 1958.
Today, Pelé hardly ever goes outside. Because all the illnesses also hit him mentally. Long-time companions even report: Pelé often asks himself how long he still has to live. Especially since more and more people from his personal environment have died. On Boxing Day, his former teammate Dorval († 86) passed away from glorious times at FC Santos. In March 2020, he lost his brother Zoca at the age of 77 to prostate cancer.
That’s why Pelé’s son Edinho (51) even talks about the depressive states he noticed in his father: “He’s the king, he’s always been such an imposing figure, and today he’s fragile. That’s really getting to him.”
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