An international poll was taken to discover the name of the person most widely recognized throughout the whole world. The result was surprising to many people. The most widely recognized person was not the President of the United States, nor the Pope in Rome, nor the reigning heavyweight boxing champion Mohammed Ali. It was a soccer player from Brazil, a man named Pele. He is so well known internationally first of all because no less than 140 countries participate in World Cup soccer matches and, secondly, he was such a great player he was able to lead his team from Brazil to an unprecedented three World Cup championships. But there is a third reason for his worldwide popularity: he is a good man. People respect and love him as a good man. When he played his last game, there were 75,000 people in the stadium, millions more watching on TV. Pele stood in the center of the arena during a moment of final tribute to him as a player and said to the crowd, "Say after me three times, 'Love...love... love'." Each time he said the word "love" the people thundered back, "Love!" Then he made a little closing speech in English, a language he had learned only three years earlier. He said, "This moment very unhappy. I stop to do what I like to do most in life: play soccer." Then he added softly, "I die a little bit today." Because, in one way or another, all of us have been there, we can identify with Pele in that situation. 

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