The World Cup 2026 halftime show at MetLife Stadium didn't just feature pop stars — it wove football's biggest names through the spectacle, and none landed heavier than Pelé.
A video of the Brazilian legend played during the show, clipped from his 1977 retirement speech. In it, Pelé — emotional, deliberate — asked the crowd to repeat one word with him three times: love. It's the same message he delivered nearly five decades ago, and it still cuts through.
He passed away on December 29, 2022, at 82. So this wasn't a cameo. It was a farewell on the sport's biggest stage.
What Made Pelé Different
Three World Cup titles — 1958, 1962, 1970. The first came when he was 17, making him the youngest player to win the tournament, a record that still stands. Guinness World Records recognised his goal-scoring feats as early as 1956. He was the first recipient of the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.
But Pelé's career stats, staggering as they are, only explain part of why that halftime tribute worked. Outside the pitch, he spent decades pushing children's rights and environmental causes. Brazil didn't just call him a football player — they called him a national treasure, and gave him a government ministry to prove it.
Compare him to Michael Jordan or Babe Ruth and you're in the right ballpark of cultural weight. Except Pelé operated on a global stage that neither of those two ever really had to contend with.
Haaland and the Meme Factor
Erling Haaland also featured among the icons highlighted during the show — not just for the seven goals he scored in his World Cup debut, which is the kind of number that rewrites tournament history books, but for the viral moments that made him a personality beyond the scoreline. The Manchester City striker has a gift for accidentally becoming a meme, and that off-pitch reach clearly registered with the show's producers.
Seven goals on a World Cup debut. However Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina played out in the final, Haaland made sure the tournament belonged to him statistically long before the last whistle.
The show itself ran from Shakira and Burna Boy through to Coldplay, PS22, the Muppets, and Sesame Street — a deliberately eclectic lineup. But the football content that framed it all pointed squarely at legacy: one active superstar, and the ghost of the greatest to ever do it.
"Love! Love! Love!" — Pelé's words, one last time, on the world's loudest stage.
