"One who is out of the ordinary, who by virtue of his quality, value or superiority can not be equated with anything or anyone, just like Pelé®, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique." reads the Michaelis text.

The inclusion of 'Pelé' in the dictionary was the result of a campaign by the Pelé Foundation, which collected 125,000 signatures on the Internet in a short few months.

The campaign was supported by Santos, the club where "O Rei" played most of his sporting career, and by the media group Globo.

The Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL), which governs the language in the country where two-thirds of Portuguese speakers live, released its own dictionary in 2021, but it does not yet include the word "Pelé."

Edson Arantes do Nascimento 'Pelé', considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time, died on 29 December 2022 at the age of 82 as a result of colon cancer. So far, he is the only player to have won three World Cups with his national team: Sweden 1958, Chile 1962 and Mexico 1970.