A Soccer Legend in Painting

Elaine de Kooning’s painting of Pelé in the National Portrait Gallery is a great way to meet one of most well-known soccer players of all time. Before the world met such current stars as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, ruled the soccer pitches during the late 1950s, 1960s, and part of the 1970s. Called on to the Brazilian national team at sixteen, Pelé won his first World Cup in Sweden in 1958, when he was just seventeen years old. The Brazilian legend went on to win the 1962 World Cup in Chile and the 1970 World Cup held in Mexico—the first soccer tournament ever broadcast in color—before retiring from the national team. Pelé played most of his career in his native country before joining the New York Cosmos in 1975.  He retired from the Cosmos in 1977 and sat for Elaine de Kooning in early September 1982.

This month, the world will watch the finest players from South America compete for the title in the Copa America, the tournament that determines the continent’s top team. The Copa includes ten South American nations plus two additional countries, Jamaica and Mexico. It is without a doubt one of the hottest soccer events this summer. If you’re asking yourself how difficult it is to win this cup, the answer is: extremely difficult. In fact, Pelé was never able to win the title during his career, although he was the top scorer, most valuable player, and runner-up in 1959 with the Verde-Amarela, Brazil’s national team. 

Albeit he won’t put on his cleats in 2015, Pelé will be rooting for the Brazilian nationals, who will look for their first continental title since 2007. In the last Copa America, Brazil was eliminated in the quarter-finals, which was considered a failure in a country that breathes, sleeps, and lives soccer. 

Nevertheless there’s a saying in soccer, “The games are 90 minutes long and played in the pitch”; in other words,anything can happen. Colombia, one of the most outstanding countries in last summer’s World Cup will look to conquer itsfirst Copa America since 2001. With all that said, here are my top three in order: Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil in this next edition of the Copa.

Moisés Linares
Telemundo Washington Sports Anchor
DC United Play by Play announcer 

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