Soccer was not born as “the beautiful game.” It was made beautiful by the artistry of its best players. Nor was soccer born as a global game. It became global in the 1950s through television. No one played the game more beautifully than Pele, the Brazilian soccer player who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 82. The supreme artist of the round ball, he became the first global sports star.

(Associated Press)

Every nation honors the memory of its best players. All of them cherish the memory of Pele. No other player exists in the soccer empyrean beyond partisanship or debate. This is not just because Pele is the only player to have won three World Cups. In Pele, we saw soccer’s Platonic ideal, mind and body beyond the merely human, perfection in motion.