From “bad father” to “understanding” and preserving his legacy: almost a year after Pelé’s death, his son told us what his last days were like

Edson Cholbi Nascimento, son of Pelé, or simply Edinho, says he is emotionally anchored to December 29, 2022. That day, “O Rei” died of cancer in Sao Paulo. The former footballer, who also played for Santos and today leads Agua Santa in the Paulista championship, remembers talking about football with his father “until the last moments” and assures that the goal of his life now will be “to perpetuate his legacy” forever.

Edinho, who has led the Diadema team in Sao Paulo since 2016, has had almost no time to carry out his duel between tributes, interviews and the bureaucratic procedures to regulate the distribution of the legacy left by what many consider be the best footballer in history. .

On the eve of the first anniversary of the death of the most universal Brazilian, Edinho spoke in the same venue of the Pelé Museum, in the city of Santos, where the former striker received visitors and met his former dressing room teammates.

“It seems like it happened yesterday. I live that moment emotionally. The feeling is the same: I miss it very much,” he tells the EFE agency.

He says it has been a year of “a lot of reflection” on the figure of his father, something that has helped him become aware of the “responsibility” he has imposed on himself to “perpetuate” the legacy of the shirt 10.

“Pelé’s story is eternal and will be told for eternity, without a doubt (…) We miss this man, but his legacy seems to last forever” and we must take advantage of it “to help people” through “projects” . social,” he explains.

The man Edson and the player Pelé

The first son of ‘O Rei’, 53, thinks carefully about every word when he draws a portrait of what Edson Arantes do Nascimento was like.

It highlights his “authenticity”, his “humanity”, his “courage” and his ability to reconcile being “the king of football” and “one of the best known people in the world” with being “a simple man”. with your feet on the ground”.

But Pelé had multiple faces and, to bear the weight of fame, he developed a psychological mechanism – says his son – which allowed him to separate “the Edson man and the Pelé brand”.

“In private he was even more sensitive and vulnerable than you might imagine. He had a deep voice, he was a great footballer, he massacred his opponents; but he was a sweet and good personwho was afraid of cockroaches,” he describes.

And Pele Sr.? “He wasn’t a good father in practice, but today I understand him very well. Afterwards he was,” says Edinho, the result of the Santos striker’s relationship with Rosemeri dos Reis.

Edinho was born on August 27, 1970, almost two months after Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in the World Cup final in Mexico, at the Azteca Stadium.

His mother, Rosemeri and O Rei separated when Edinho was seven years old. The breakup was due to a serious problem: DNA showed that Pelé had had a daughter with Anizia Machado, the woman who worked in the family home. Three years earlier they had moved to New York to follow the Brazilian star’s adventure in Cosmos.

He says that after the breakup he no longer lived with his father until the age of 19-20, when he returned to Brazil and started his goalkeeping career at Santos.

“This brought us a lot closer. It was from there that our relationship began and there he became a great father. He felt disappointed by the distance there was”, he underlines.

Edinho, who at the end of his sporting career was sentenced to 12 years for pressure for money laundering and links to drug trafficking (a case which had several appeals), explains with resignation the absence of a father figure in his youth: “I simply I had to share my father with the world.”

Let’s talk about football until the end

All in all, he ended up building an “incredible” relationship with him, “one hundred percent football-driven” and which “lasted until the last day”.

“Imagine having the privilege of talking about football with ‘O Rei’ and being his confidant. They were very rich discussions when he brought his experience. We talked about the evolution of the game. He often asked me questions about tactics,” he explains.

“I really miss those moments,” he adds.

In the last decade, as he began to lose mobility and his health began to deteriorate, the 10th became the reason why the whole family gathered on important dates.

He spent his last Christmas in a private hospital in São Paulo surrounded by his wife Márcia Aoki, his children and his grandchildren. A few days later he died of multiple organ failure resulting from colon cancer. He was 82 years old.

“He talked about football until the last moment,” says Edinho.

The heirs of the king of football spent this Christmas separately, although they promised that they will have a joint video call on the 29th.

“The more we are together, the more it will remain alive between us,” he observes.