Pelé is known as greatest footballer of all time. He was blessed with ability to control the ball superbly, powerful and accurate shooting, speed, tremendous vision, and good balance. In his career he scored 760 official goals, 541 in league championships, making him the top scorer of all time. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games. He became known as "The King of Football" (O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (O Rei Pelé) or simply "The King" (O Rei).
Edison "Edson" Arantes Do Nascimento or Pelé was born in a poor family. His parents, Dondinho and Dona Celeste Arantes, named him after the American inventor, Thomas Edison, however they decided to remove the ‘i’ and call him ‘Edson’. Many documents showed his name as "Edison", not "Edson". It’s because there was a mistake on the birth certificate. His family originally nicknamed him Dico.
He received the nickname "Pelé" because of his pronunciation of the name of his favorite player, local Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bilé, which he misspoke but the more he complained the more it stuck. The word ‘Pelé’ has no known meaning in Portuguese.
Club Career
Pelé began playing football for Bauru Athletic Club juniors in Sao Paolo at the age of 14. At 15, a football star, Waldemar de Brito, took Pelé to try out for professional club Santos Futebol Clube. He told the directors at Santos that Pelé would be “the greatest football player in the world.”
Pelé made his debut in 7 September 1956 in a friendly game against Corinthians. The result was 7-1 for Santos and Pelé scored one goal.
Pelé was given a starting place in the first team in 1957 when season started, and became the top scorer in the league. Pelé won his first major title with Santos in 1958 as the team won the Campeonato Paulista; Pelé would finish the tournament as top scorer with an incredible 58 goals, a record that stands today.
After the 1972 season (his 17th with Santos), Pelé retired from Brazilian club football although he continued to occasionally suit up for Santos in official competitive matches. Two years later, he came out of semi-retirement to sign with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL) for the 1975 season.
On 1 October 1977, Pelé closed out his legendary career in an exhibition match between the Cosmos and Santos. He played the first half for the Cosmos and the second half for Santos. At halftime, the Cosmos retired Pelé's number 10. Pelé presented his Cosmos shirt to his father, who was escorted to the field by Cosmos captain. Cosmos won the match 2–1. After the match, Pelé was embraced by the Cosmos players, including longtime rival Giorgio Chinaglia, and then ran around the field while holding an American flag in his left hand and a Brazilian flag in his right hand. Pelé was soon lifted by several Cosmos players and carried around the field.
National Team Career
Ten months afer signing professional, Pelé was called up to Brazil team. Pelé's first international match was a 2–1 defeat against Argentina on 7 July 1957. He scored his first goal for Brazil at age 16 years and 9 months which made him the youngest player to score in International football.
In World Cup 1958, Pelé became a youngest player who plays in the World Cup. His first match was against the USSR in the first round, on the third game of the Cup. He scored his first World Cup goal against Wales in quarterfinals, made him the youngest World Cup goal scorer at 17 years and 239 days. Pelé scored the only goal of the match that helps Brazil advance to semifinal to face France. Against France, he scored a hat-trick, becoming the youngest in World Cup history to do so. Brazil won 5-2 and ready to face Sweden in the final. At 17 years and 249 days, Pelé became the youngest player to play in a World Cup final match. Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 and Pelé scored two goals.
In World Cup 1962, Pelé got injured in second match in the first round against Czechoslovakia while attempting a long-range shot. This made him out of the rest of the tournament. The substitute was Amarildo, who performed well for the rest of the tournament. However, it was Garrincha who would take the leading role and carry Brazil to their second World Cup title.The next World Cup in 1966 became a nightmare for Pelé. He got some brutal tackles from Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders. In the first match against Bulgaria, he got injured, a result of persistent fouling by the Bulgarians. He missed the second match against Hungary. Brazil lost that game and Pelé, although still recovering, was brought back for the last crucial match against Portugal, but got injured again because of some bad tackles he got. Brazil was eliminated in the first round. After this game he vowed he would not play again in the World Cup, a decision he would later change.
Pelé was called to the national team in early 1969; he refused at first, but then accepted and played in six World Cup qualifying matches, scoring six goals. The 1970 World Cup in Mexico was to be Pelé's last. Brazil went to the final against Italy. Brazil won the third World Cup by defeating Italy 4-1, keeping the Jules Rimet Trophy indefinitely.
Pelé's last international match was on 18 July 1971 against Yugoslavia in Rio de Janeiro. With Pelé on the field, the Brazilian team's record was 67 wins, 14 draws, and 11 losses, and they won three World Cups.
| PERSONAL DATA | ||||||||
| Full Name | : | Edison "Edson" Arantes do Nascimento | ||||||
| Birth | : | 21 or 23 October 1940 in Três Corações, Brazil | ||||||
| Height | : | 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) | ||||||
| Position | : | Forward | ||||||
| CARRER | ||||||||
| Club | ||||||||
| year | team | appearances | goals | |||||
| 1952-1956 | : | Bauru | (youth carrer) | |||||
| 1956-1974 | : | Santos | 605 | 730 | ||||
| 1975-1977 | : | New York Cosmos | 64 | 37 | ||||
| National | ||||||||
| 1957-1971 | : | Brazil | 92 | 77 | ||||
| HONOURS | ||||||||
| Club | ||||||||
| - | Santos | : | - | Copa Libertadores (1962, 1963) | ||||
| - | Campeonato Paulista (1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, | |||||||
| 1973) | ||||||||
| - | Taca Brasil (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965) | |||||||
| - | Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa (1968) | |||||||
| - | Torneio Rio-São Paulo (1959, 1963, 1964, 1966) | |||||||
| - | Intercontinental Cup (1962, 1963) | |||||||
| - | Recopa Intercontinental (1968) | |||||||
| - | New York Cosmos | : | - | Nort American Soccer League (1977) | ||||
| National | ||||||||
| - | Brazil | : | - | Roca Cup (1957, 1963) | ||||
| - | FIFA World Cup (1958, 1962, 1970) | |||||||
| Individual | ||||||||
| - | Copa Libertadores Top Scorer - Santos (1965) | |||||||
| - | Campeonato Paulista Top Scorer - Santos (1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, | |||||||
| 1973) | ||||||||
| - | Copa America Top Scorer - Brazil (1959) | |||||||
| - | FIFA World Cup Best Young Player (1958) | |||||||
| - | FIFA World Cup Silver Boot (1958) | |||||||
| - | FIFA World Cup Silver Ball (1958) | |||||||
| - | FIFA World Cup Golden Ball (1970) | |||||||
| - | BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality (1970) | |||||||
| - | South American Footballer of the Year (1973) | |||||||
| - | Athlete of the Century, elected by world wide journalists, poll by French daily L'Equipe (1981) | |||||||
| - | Inducted into the American National Soccer Hall of Fame (1993) | |||||||
| - | Knight Commander of the British Empire (1997) | |||||||
| - | Athlete of the Century, by Reuters News Agency (1999) | |||||||
| - | Athlete of the Century, elected by International Olympic Committee (1999) | |||||||
| - | UNICEF Football Player of the Century (1999) | |||||||
| - | Time Magazine One of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century (1999) | |||||||
| - | Football Player of the Century, elected by France Football's Golden Ball Winners (1999) | |||||||
| - | Football Player of the Century, by IFFHS International Federation of Football History and Statistics | |||||||
| (1999) | ||||||||
| - | South America Football Player of the Century, by IFFHS International Federation of Football | |||||||
| History and Statistic (1999) | ||||||||
| - | FIFA Player of the Century (2000 ) | |||||||
| - | Laureus World Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from South African President Nelson | |||||||
| Mandela (2000) | ||||||||
Source: Wikipedia
Pele was a legend.His world cup performance only is enough to explain his talent. In the tender age 0f 17 he showed what he is. Yes there is no doubt he is "the greatest footballer of all time".
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Pelé is the man! That kind of talent is one in a million. You got to know how to hunt the ball like a pro.
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