Soccer: His Majesty

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IS THE KING DEAD? Not yet. Not quite.

When that headline ran in a Rio de Janeiro newspaper in 1966, it seemed to a lot of soccer fans that Edson Arantes do Nascimento, alias Pelé, alias the King, was indeed dead—or at least he had lost his crown. The exciting, agile, acrobatic youth who almost single-handed won Brazil the World Cup in 1958 and led his Santos team to two world professional-club championships was now 27, married, rich, overweight —naturally—and the goat of Brazil's loss to Hungary in the 1966 World Cup playoffs. The spotlight moved from Pelé to the pretenders: England's Bobby Charlton, Portugal's Eusebio.

It turned back last week. Led by a slimmed-down, rejuvenated Pelé, who set up one goal with a leaping, twisting head pass, the other with a deft little sideways kick, Santos beat archrival Sao Paulo 2-1—thereby winning the Sao Paulo Cup for the eighth time in ten years and stamping itself once again as probably the best pro club in the world. "This is what I wanted!" shouted the King—his crown safe again.