Pele's football was art and dance; this is how

Brazilian soccer legend Pele attends the 2018 soccer World Cup draw in the Kremlin in Moscow. [AP Photo]

The cross punch hit his ear. The uppercut hit his chin. He flew across the room and landed on the hard floor. The hall went silent. I had just committed an abomination. I had punched a man within the precincts of a police estate.

I had floored a guest of a senior police officer. He lay motionless. Several police officers pounced on me and pinned me on the floor as others tried to administer first aid to the man. I was detained for a week. I did manual jobs every day as punishment as I waited for word from the hospital. "For now, you will be charged with assault but if he dies, it will be murder," one police officer told me.

One evening, my estate mates came to demand my release. It turned out that the fellow I had punched had come around several hours later. I was being held on the pretext that he lay helpless and lifeless in some ICU.

The punching incident was provoked by the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final game. France edged out my favourite team, Brazil. The punching victim had been the loudest in the hall. We had had several arguments since the match started with Zico, Socrates, Josimar and Edinho leading one of the best Brazillian national teams.

Then the debate went to the football legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele. The loudmouth said some unprintable things about Pele and I cringed. His mouth went wild soon after the Brazilian loss and my punches flew automatically. Pele was one of the global icons that defined my life. The other two were Bruce Lee, a martial arts king and Muhammad Ali, the King of Boxing.

Our estate fantasies

Kivumbini estate, where I grew up in Nakuru was ever busy. From morning to evening, children were busy playing or fighting. There would be a game of football going on and a boxing or karate match taking place at the same venue. Three major disciplines defined our lives: football, boxing and martial arts.

We also had our three heroes who influenced even our walking styles: Pele, Bruce Lee and Mohamed Ali. The three men, who were almost agemates, remain the greatest sports and martial arts legends of the 20th century. Pele, born on October 23, 1940, died a few days ago with an unshaken record of winning three FIFA World Cup titles for Brazil.

Muhammad Ali who died on June 3, 2016, was born on January 17, 1942. He remains boxing's greatest. Bruce Lee, born on November 27, 1940, died on July 20, 1973, but the mark he left on martial arts continues to baffle many.

Some have tried to compare Pele to modern-day footballers. That is like comparing a dog to a lion. Pele's football was flawless. It was a dance. It was an art. It was a blend of capoeira and soccer. It was easy for those of us in karate to associate with the leg work. No wonder, Johan Cruyff, the Dutch footballer, described Pele as the "only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic."

French Magazine, Le Monde says of him: "Slender but endowed with a supernatural tendency with his two feet and the flexibility of capoeiristas, barely breaking 1.7 metres in height but capable of prodigious vertical spring. Pele, before being a divinity, was a player in the literal sense; a playful man."

"An eternal child for when football remained a game where he could express his inventiveness and phenomenal nerve, his innate sense of "improvisation", as his captain Carlos Alberto called it, enabled him to make moves that were adapted to each situation and never repeated. The essence of a work of art. The Brazilian pixie made fools of defenders, who suddenly became clumsy, inept and petrified when playing against him."

In his book, Pele: The Autobiography, Pele himself remembers: "My father saw that I was small and rather skinny...since I couldn't push others out of the way or jump higher than them, I just had to be better at it. I had to learn to make the ball an extension of myself."

Indeed, he became an extension and would weave around defenders. It's Pele's vision I was watching in the 1986 game when the loud mouth interrupted my joy.

Having read the story of Pele, poverty and impoverishment he grew up in, and how he helped Brazil lift the 1958 FIFA World Cup, he stuck in our minds and hearts. Those days, we watched recorded matches many days later and we could not tell if they were being broadcast live. The fact that we watched them on black-and-white television did not diminish our joy.

No household in our estate had a television set. However, the police estate next to ours had a social hall with a TV, in a lockable box. Despite our hatred for the police, we would humble ourselves whenever there was a major event like the World Cup.

Unmatched record

We could give anything to the police to allow us to watch Pele. The man who scored 1283 goals in 1366 football games during his 20-year career was listed in the Guinness World Records for most career goals.

Pele, just like Ali and Bruce Lee, never shied away from political fights. They fought injustice in all its forms. They fought racism and all discriminatory practices. They became symbols of hope for the oppressed Blacks and despised Chinese.

In September 2022, Brazilian Vinicius Jr suffered a racist slur when he danced after scoring against Mallorca, a Spanish club. Pedro Bravo, the president of the Spanish association, was forced to retract his statement after accusing Vinicius of "playing the monkey."

Pele was quick to support the dancing striker. He told the French newspaper, Le Monde that: "Football is joy. It's a dance. It's a real party. Although racism still exists, we will not allow that to stop us from continuing to smile. And we will continue to fight racism this way; fighting for our right to be happy."

During the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, Pele became the youngest player in the tournament's history at 17. With a swollen knee, he lifted the trophy. He said: "When I arrived at the training camp in Sweden, where the World Cup was taking place, the wrong flag was being flown for Brazil, there was a circle." That time, under attack for the skin of his colour, he had to make Brazil and the Black race proud.

His friend Ali

Pele and Ali were friends. Both sports icons had a major influence on world politics. Ali fought discrimination and racism all his life. He suffered racial attacks so much that he even abandoned Christianity for Islam. In his biography, King of the World, by David Remnick, Ali became the Heavyweight Champion of the World when he was only 22 -- February 25, 1964.

David Remnick says: "Cassius Clay entered the ring in Miami Beach wearing a short white robe, "The Lip" stitched on the back. He was beautiful again. He was fast, sleek, and twenty-two. But, for the first and last time in his life, he was afraid. The ring was crowded with has-beens and would-bes, liege men and pugs. Clay ignored them. He began bouncing on the balls of his feet, shuffling joylessly at first, like a marathon dancer at ten to midnight, but then with more speed, more pleasure.

After a few minutes, Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champion of the world, stepped through the ropes and onto the canvas, gingerly, like a man easing himself into a canoe.... Clay was in complete control of the fight. There were welts under both of Liston's eyes. He had aged a decade in fifteen minutes.

At the end of the sixth round, Liston sat down on his stool and stayed there. He quit. The next day, Clay would announce that he was not merely the heavyweight champion but a member of the Nation of Islam." He changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali.

In those days, boxing in the US was controlled by the mafia. Ali was despised by many including the media. The mafia were frustrated because they couldn't control him. The government officials and the mayor of his city couldn't tolerate a Black champion. He couldn't be served in most hotels and establishments despite winning a gold medal for the US in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

When he entered the ring to fight Liston, the odds were 1 to 7 against him. Even his sponsor had tried to plead with the opponent camp not to kill their boxer. Ambulances were placed on standby to save his life during the first second of the fight. Only one man believed in him and sat on the ringside, Malcolm X, who was Clay's guest and mentor.

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee's legacy cut across colour lines. He had deep and unrepentant love for his heritage. He drowned himself in timeless wisdom. Apart from a punishing physical fitness schedule, Bruce Lee read widely and deeply.

During the 2020 riots following the murder of George Floyd by a racist police officer, Bruce Lee's legacy emerged again. Bao Nguyen, the director of a documentary on Lee, "Be Water" said: "His interactions with so many different people and his willingness to learn, helped him become a good ally."

Lee understood the systemic oppression that African Americans were confronted with during the civil rights era. Lee encountered racism from childhood in Hong Kong. He had to cut through layers of racism in Hollywood, enduring emasculation of Asian men and anti-Asian sentiments.

Like Pele and Ali, Bruce Lee used martial arts to fight for the rights of minorities. He became a symbol of courage, love, decency and wisdom.

The absolute King of Football, has gone to join his two friends. Pele, just like Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali, was in his discipline, The Chosen One.