Comparison can be carried out in all directions. Messi can be compared to Ronaldo. Neymar with Mbappe. Puskas with Di Stefano. Yasin with Banks. Platini with Zidane. Maracana from Wembley.

OUR Pele, however, is not included in any “scale”. And all because he belongs to the players who have become a legend. He mythologised himself, mythologised the Brazilian nation, and opened the “borders” to an introverted country torn apart by military coups and violence.

The son of a wealthy football player, Dondinho, was to experience the harsh side of life and live on the street, cleaning the shoes of passers-by with his wooden box, and at the age of 10, he will for the first time feel .. the metaphysical power that football hides when he sees how Brazilians mourn defeat from Uruguay in 1950.

Six years later, he will be tested from Santos to Villa Belmiro and will stand out from the first moment. In 1958, before he was 18 years old, he would become a member of the Brazilian national team.

This is a time when football is clearly becoming closer to society, and the defeat of a football team turns into a national drama. 10-year-old Pele is living through the days of grief of his compatriots and his family. And he promises his devastated father to bring the first trophy to his country.

In 1956, Pele will go from Santos to Villa Belmiro and stand out from the first moment. In Santos, he would remain “locked up” as a “national treasure” until 1974 and, in fact, would make his name more famous with the national team he was called up to in 1958, before he even turned 18.

He will go to Sweden for the 6th World Cup with the team of Hjalma Santos, Zito, Bellini, Nilton Santos, De Carvalho, Zilmar, Garrincha, Didi, Vava, Zagallo, he will score five goals in the final against Sweden and Pelé. will become the national symbol of the Brazilians and the starting point for “seleção”.

The planet will begin to… look at the map to where Brazil falls. He will begin to imagine what … materially I am made of this little magician of the ball, since television cannot yet – at that time – “spoil” the creation of an idol with its cold reality.

And now for 4 years Pele traveled from mouth to mouth, from magazine to newspaper, from articles to reports and in 1962 in Chile everyone will be waiting to learn more about this phenomenon.

A shell shock in the second game will leave him out of the World Cup. However, he manages to leave the world speechless with his goal against Mexico, a goal that we “saw” years later, in 1986, by Maradona against England.

The Seleção return with their second trophy to Brazil, and the country becomes synonymous with football, a huge football school where the dream of most children is to become Pelé.

Some, of course, dream of bullets and tanks. General Branco seizes power and Pele is trapped between football and politics.

In the 1966 World Cup, the “black pearl” is experiencing the severe punishment of football, which has become tougher and more efficient. Brazil reaches out to England. He decides not to play in the national team anymore, but the Medici, the country’s new dictator… will convince him. Many say he will do it his way.

Pele returns to “seleção” feeling that everyone is “labeling” him: the regime that wants distinction, the press that waits in the corner, the world that hopes, the critics that accuse him of cowardice when they see him in the Medici. the palace, the whole planet… Brazil must come back to the World Cup strong, and the then 30-year-old seems to carry all that weight like an atlas of ancient Greek mythology.

Together with all this, he will have to defeat the eccentric Joao Saldanha, a federal technician who hates the stars. He believes that Pele has a vision problem, and shortly before the “selesao” is thrown into the air, his old teammate and apparently softer Mario Zagallo will take over the reins.

In Mexico in 1970, Pelé would lead perhaps the best Brazil of all time. At the age of 30, he will work miracles and create miracles and together with teammates like Rivellino, Tostao, Zairzinho, Carlos Alberto, Zerson, Clodoaldo, they will write a triumphant epilogue for a whole generation of Brazilian football. In the final, they will defeat Italy 4-1 and become undefeated world champions for the third time.

Everyone will see an absolute legend with their own eyes through television receivers. Pele doesn’t need any more rumors. He deserved a place in the Pantheon. Teammates and rivals, journalists and sports fans, politicians, artists, writers will all bow down to the Pele phenomenon.

Even to this day, one action, one goal, one pass, one dribbling, from Ronaldo to Messi, from Cruyff to Ronaldinho, from Maradona to Zidane, somewhere, one way or another, someday we will see it from Pelé.

Off the field, he may not have been a fighter like Socrates or Carlos Caselli, he may not have had the dynamism of Maradona in his dealings with the world, but no one can deny that Enchon Arantes do Nascimento erected the building of football, mythologised the Brazilian national team , opened the roads of his country to the whole world.

And as Andy Warhol said: “Pele was one of the few who opposes my theory: instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries” …