News Desk
ISLAMABAD/LONDON: Brazil forward and Paris Saint Germain star Neymar led emotional tributes paid to football legend Pele after the Brazil iconic football player died on Thursday.
Neymar said that his iconic compatriot Pele transformed the sport “into an art and entertainment”.
Pele passed away aged 82 after suffering “multiple organ failure” following a long battle with cancer.
Football’s current and former stars paid a salute to the football’s greatest-ever player.
Pele, nicknamed “O Rei” or The King, scored over 1,000 goals before he retired in 1977.
Neymar hailed Pele, who won three World Cups, in a social media post alongside two pictures of himself with the legend.
“Before Pele, ’10’ was just a number but that beautiful sentence was incomplete. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport,” Neymar, the heir to Pele’s famed shirt number, wrote on Instagram.
Neymar said that that football and Brazil gained status thanks to the football King. Pele has gone, but his magic will remain. Pele is eternal”
France striker Kylian Mbappe, who shot to stardom after winning the World Cup at a young age in 2018 and Pele had congratuled him after the then 19-year-old became the first teenager to score more than once in a World Cup match against Argentina in the 2018 tournament, said that the king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten.
Lionel Messi, who cemented his status among the football immortals by winning his first World Cup 2022, posted an Instagram photo of himself with Pele alongside a message: “Rest in peace, Pele.”
Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo, who showed a photo of Pele giving him an award, praised him as an “inspiration to millions, a reference from yesterday, today, forever”.
Ronaldo said in an Instagram post that the affection Pele always showed for him was reciprocal in every moment they shared, even from a distance.
Ronaldo said that pele will never be forgotten and his memory will live on forever among the football lovers. Rest in peace, King Pele.
Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s record-setting striker, said that anything you see any player doing, Pele did it first. RIP.
Geoff Hurst, the former England World Cup winner, who played against Pele in the 1970 World, said in a tweet that he had so many memories of Pele, without doubt, the best footballer I ever played against.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in an Instagram post: “Pele: Immortal – forever with us.”
France player and current Les Bleus manager Didier Deschamps said Pele had “inspired dreams and with his death, football has lost one of its most beautiful legends. “Like all legends, the football King seemed immortal,” Deschamps said.
German great Franz Beckenbauer, who played with Pele at Cosmos said today, football lost the greatest man in its history, and he lost a unique friend.
