I was bemused at the conclusion of the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar to hear Argentina’s Lionel Messi lauded as the GOAT (the Greatest of All Time) for finally landing the one diadem that had eluded him throughout a long and illustrious career.
Yet if being a World Cup winner is the measure of all-time greatness, then Messi can hardly qualify to clean the boots of the one and only Pelé, the only footballer in history to have lifted three World Cups.
Messi is no doubt one of the greatest footballers of all time, as is his present-day rival Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Another Argentine, Diego Maradona, who passed away in 2020, also laid claim to the title of the greatest-ever footballer.
And there were many others who lit up football across the ages. Alfredo Di Stéfano, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, George Best, Ferenc Puskás, Garrincha, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo (the original one), Eusébio, Gordon Banks, Gerd Müller and so many others were all considered amongst the greatest of their respective eras and bona fide contenders for GOAT.
In terms of career accomplishments, none could hold a candle to Pelé. Yet beyond the goals, titles won, World Cups played and other career statistics, it is impossible to say who was actually a better footballer than the other. They shone at different times on different stages, making fair accurate head-to-head comparisons almost impossible.
The difference is that Pelé transcended football: He was one of those rare sports stars who are globally recognised for much more than their supreme skills and accomplishments on the playing field. Such sporting icons come only once in a generation.
One can look to Muhammad Ali in boxing, Tiger Woods in golf, Michael Jordan in basketball, Billie Jean King in tennis and a few others in that select group. Locally, we have our own sporting supporters in that elite, athletics greats Kipchoge Keino and Eliud Kipchoge coming easily to mind.
Beyond sports
Such greats are forever remembered beyond sports. They are feted by Kings, presidents and the Pope. Long after retirement, they remain household names, familiar even to those with no interest in sports.
They become spokesmen and ambassadors not just for the sport that made them famous but being invited to speak at the United Nations and other such fora on global peace, humanitarian campaigns, environmental protection, racism and other global causes.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or Pelé to the world, and like many Brazilian footballers going mononymously, did not leap to such rarefied heights by accident or on football talent alone. It was out of being a good and decent man.
There was no showboating or arrogance on or off the pitch. There was no history of cheating, greed, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, links to criminal gangs or any of the weaknesses or human frailties that so afflict sporting superstars who don’t know how to manage fame and fortune.
Pelé’s life holds big lessons for all of us who aspire to be good and decent human beings before anything else.
There is the lesson that if we want to succeed in sports, business, politics, the professions or any of our chosen fields of endeavour, we must apply ourselves with discipline and commitment. We must work hard and strive for perfection, knowing that there is no success in shortcuts.
Our reputation as a global athletics superpower has suffered severe knocks in the recent past due to the alarming surge in the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. As a nation, we are guilty of closing our eyes to the drug epidemic, finding puny excuses in blaming foreign media or rival sporting powers for the iniquities of our own.
Cover-ups
The government, the athletics governing body, and even the media are all complicit in covering-up horrendous crimes that ultimately affect not just our name as a sporting power; but the health of hundreds of young athletes who will suffer the consequences of drug abuse long after they have hung up their spikes.
The culture of cheating is not limited to the running track. It is part of our national ethos. We will willingly elect known thieves, rapists, murderers and drug dealers to political leadership just because they hail from our clan or tribe or because they are best positioned to buy our vote and conscience.
We seem not to make the connection between bad governance and institutionalised corruption, and the quality of leaders we put into office.
When our leaders from across the political spectrum unite in hailing the departed ‘King’ Pelé we must ask them if they carry forward any lessons from his reign. BY DAILY NATION