O Rei of football. Undoubtedly one of a kind.

In the 1960s and 1970s, an international war was fought for supremacy in the sports materials industry. The so-called ?Sneaker Wars? between German business conglomerates Adidas and Puma, dictated the rhythm of the business. And the world of soccer was at the center of it all.?

After a ceasefire between the two brands that included the so-called ?Pelé Pact? among its provisions, it was the 1970 World Cup in Mexico that suddenly became the battleground that stirred the drums of war.

Pelé, who until then had an agreement to use the boots of the Stylo Matchmakers brand (also used by George Best, and by the 1970s Liverpool), reached an agreement with Puma before the quarter-final match against Peru, and as soon as the match started, he asked the referee to stop the match so he could tie his boots. In what was already determined as one of the great guerrilla marketing actions – for a payment of around $120,000 – in the history of sport, the cameras focused on Pelé and his new, unmistakable white-sided Pumas were clearly seen, incontrovertibly breaking the pact.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento has just passed away, and with him not only one of the four best players in history along with Di Stefano, Cruyff, and Maradona, but also the first great global star of the game, and the first whose precocity on the field (he debuted and scored with the Sele??o at 16 years of age, and won his first World Cup at 17 in 1958) was only matched by his ability for business off the soccer fields.

Pelé is such a transcendental figure that he marked epochs and territories unexplored by athletes before him, even co-starring with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine in the 1981 film ‘Victory,’ which narrated the adventures of a group of Allied soldiers in World War II, with a certain knack for kicking the ball and mischief.

Even off the playing field, he was always a commercially relevant figure and had lucrative agreements with brands like Hublot, Santander Bank, Emirates, Subway, Volkswagen, and Puma when he relaunched his offensive in soccer. But for me, Pelé has a very personal significance, and that is that during the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Pelé was an ambassador and image for Pizza Hut, and starred in a campaign that for the first time cemented in my consciousness the business associated with sport.

They say that one of the symptoms of getting older is that more and more people, close and familiar, and also cultural references, leave us. The ?Mount Rushmore? of soccer history has already passed into the eternal plane, and perhaps the current stars will become more known, wealthier, and probably more effective statistically. But it will be very difficult for them to achieve the iconic status of those who marked an era, and Pelé is undoubtedly one of them: O Rei Pelé was the wunderkind of soccer, who at 17 years old conquered the world, when the game was in black and white, and the world population did not reach 3 billion.

Rest in peace, King. You will always be remembered as a player who revolutionized the game and as a businessman who knew how to take advantage of his fame and popularity to the maximum.