Pelé is a legendary football player who attended four World Cups, from 1962 to 1970. In all the international football matches, he never missed a chance to score. More specifically, he had set a record of scoring 1289 goals after 1363 matches in his career.
If you are a big fan of football, you will definitely know Pelé – one of the greatest footballers in the world. Keep reading to know more information about “the King of football”.
Table of Contents
1. Childhood
Pelé is the nickname of Edson Arantes given by Nascimento – his father. He was born on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil, and was the first child of João Ramos and Dona Celeste. Pelé moved with his family to the city of Bauru when he was a boy.
He grew up in a very poor family. His father – João Ramos, known as “Dondinho”, struggled to make a living as a football player, because he was not an excellent footballer. At that time, football was probably one of the most popular entertainments in Brazil.
And Pelé was also passionate about football, though he did not even have a ball to practice. The little boy still developed his passion by training with a “fabric ball”, which he made from stuffing torn cloth into a sock and curled it up.
He had the nickname Pelé when he was only 7 years old. Until now, he has no memory of why he had that nickname and what it means.
As a teenager, Pelé joined a youth team trained by Waldemar de Brito, a former member of the Brazil national football team. De Brito finally persuaded Pelé’s family to let him leave the house and joined a professional soccer club-Santos- when he was only 15 years old.
2. Football career
Pelé signed a contract with Santos and immediately began his training with the other footballers in the new team. Pelé scored his first professional goal in his career before turning 16.
He helped his team to have the highest number of goals in the first season. And this gave Pelé the honor of playing for the Brazil national football team.
Pelé was officially introduced to the world during the 1958 World Cup season in Sweden. He showed his remarkable speed, accurate vision. This 17-year-old boy attracted the attention of football fans all over the world and expressed in a 5-2 victory over France, in which he scored three goals. Winning against the home team at that time made the whole world shout out his name.
The young superstar received huge offers to play for the European clubs, and the Brazilian President – Jânio Quadros finally stated that Pelé was a national treasure. This was an honor but it prevented him from developing his career in football in another country.
After that, he still played for Santos and earned a massive amount of money from football and advertisement contracts.
3. Pelé and the World Cup
Pelé suffered a serious injury at the foot before the decisive match to join the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and he was unable to participate in that match.
Four years later, in England, a series of brutal attacks by enemy defenders once again forced him to stop playing football. And the Brazil national football team was eliminated in the first round of the season.
Despite the frustration in world football, the legend of Pelé continued to be hailed. In the late 1960s, two Nigerian Civil War factions were reported to have agreed to a ceasefire for 48 hours so they could watch Pelé play football in Lagos.
The 1970 World Cup in Mexico marked the victory and glory for Pelé and Brazil. Leading a formidable squad, Pelé scored four goals in the tournament, including one in the final to give Brazil a 4-1 victory over Italy.
Pelé announced his retirement from football in 1974, but he was “dragged” back to the pitch the following year to play for New York Cosmos in the North American Football League and helped NASL become a major attraction.
He played his last game in an exhibition between New York and Santos in October 1977. He played for both teams and retired with a total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches.
4. Pele’s career after football
After ending his football career, Pelé spent more time doing other works, one of which was the publication of his autobiography called “Pelé: The Autobiography”. In addition to becoming a writer, he also became a successful businessman.
Currently, he has a Pelé coffee brand that is widely known around the world. Pelé is also a TV commentator, TV presenter and even a singer of copyrighted songs. But after his career, Pelé became famous primarily as an actor.
If you mention Pele’s actor career, you will probably find it difficult to count, because he has participated in more than 50 different movies.
Some films that made his fame must be mentioned: Os Trapalh Rei by Futebol (comic film), O Barão Otelo no barato dos bilhões (comedy), O Preço da Vitória (sports film).
In addition, there are a dozen movies that Pele starred as The Melodrama A Marcha, Os Trombadinhas, A Minor Miracle, Victory, and so on.
5. Pele’s awards
- 1957, 1963 – The winner of the Roca Cup (Brazil national football team)
- 1958, 1962, 1970 – World champion (Brazil national football team)
- 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973 – Champion of Campeonato Paulista (Santos Club)
- 1959, 1963, 1964, 1966 – The winner of Torneio Rio-São Paulo (Santos Club)
- 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 – Brazil Cup Сhampion (Santos Club)
- 1962, 1963 – The winner of the Copa Libertadores (Santos Club)
- 1962,1963 – Intercontinental Cup winner (Santos Club)
- 1968 – The winner of Cup Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa (Santos Club)
- 1977 – North American Champion League (New York Cosmos)
- 1995 – Appointed as Brazil’s Sports Minister.
- 1998 – Received the honorary knight status of the British Empire
- 2000 – FIFA’s greatest football player of the 20th century
- 1999 – Century athlete of the International Olympic Committee
- 2002 – The greatest football player of all time
- 2014 – FIFA World Cup Golden Ball (Best Player)
Through all the above achievements, Pele deserves to be admired by all of us, right? If you have any comments about this legendary, leave your comment here. Click www.tructiepbongda.vip to know more information about football right now.
