Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the most famous and perhaps greatest footballer of all time, was born in Brazil on October 23, 1940. He grew up in a poor family. Since childhood, he was fond of the game, in which he later became an idol for millions, although his first balls were made from socks and newspapers.
From 1956, when he signed his first professional contract, until his farewell match in 1977, he scored 757 goals (or 1,283 depending on how you count) and won three World Cups. Pele is called the Black Pearl and the King of Football. No other player has come close to his achievements. He was recognized as the best football player of the 20th century according to the FIFA Football Commission and the best athlete of the 20th century according to the International Olympic Committee.
In the summer of 1958, the incredibly talented, but still very young Pele flew to Sweden with the Brazilian national team for the World Cup. When he returned home, his name was known throughout the planet.
Phenomenon
Pele (right) with his Santos teammates in 1957. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
Pelé was not yet 16 years old when he joined Santos, his first professional club, for whom he played his first international match and scored his first goal as Brazil beat Argentina 2-1 on July 7, 1957 . In less than a year, Pele would become a soccer star in Sweden.
Biography of Pele after football
After finishing his football career, Pele became even more popular. During this period of his biography, he wrote a book about himself, “I am Pele,” which was a stunning success all over the world.
Those Brazilians who could not read began to learn to read only in order to read the work of the great football player. The head of state even signed a decree in which the king of football was proclaimed a “national treasure.”
In the early 90s, Pele was Minister of Youth, Sports and Tourism. In addition, he became a Goodwill Ambassador, promoting a healthy lifestyle.
In addition to all his achievements, Pele demonstrated an amazing ability for business. Today everyone knows the variety of coffee named after him - “Cafe Pele”.
Pele periodically comments on football matches and performs original songs. His biography includes many acting roles, as a result of which he also became famous as a talented artist.
Pele starred in dozens of films, often playing himself. The film entitled “Pelé: Birth of a Legend” (2016), based on facts from his biography, gained great popularity.
The film describes in detail the childhood of the legendary Brazilian, as well as the difficulties he had to face on the path to fame.
Examination
Doctors examine Pelé in 1958. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
In 1958, Pelé was selected for Brazil's World Cup squad before suffering a knee injury that kept him out of the first two games of the tournament. (The Brazilians won against Austria and drew with England.) The young striker appeared in the starting lineup for his team in the game against the USSR national team.
Performances for the New York Cosmos
Pele played for Santos from 1956 to 1974. He played for the Brazilian national team from 1957 to 1971. During this time, he managed to become the most skilled, recognizable and simply the best football player in the whole world. In 1975, Pele signed a contract with the American club New York Cosmos from the NASL league. This transfer caused a storm of emotions in the football community, because football in America was just emerging and its level was much lower than in Brazil, where Pele became the “king of football.” Pelé agreed to play in the Cosmos jersey due to financial difficulties (the reason was unscrupulous advisers).
In addition, the footballer claimed that he would play for the idea of developing and popularizing football in the USA. Signing a contract with the New York Cosmos made him the highest paid footballer in the world. Pelé spent only 2 seasons in the American League, and during this time the number of spectators and fans in the United States increased 10 times. In 1977, as part of Cosmos, the Brazilian also became the champion of the North American Soccer League.
Debut
Pele (third from left) lines up with the Brazilian team before the match against the Soviet Union. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
On June 15, 1958, Pele became the youngest participant in the World Championships, a record he held for 24 years. (The record was broken in 1982 by Northern Irish footballer Norman Whiteside, who was 17 years and 41 days old at the time, six months younger than Pele in 1958.) Brazilian footballer Vava, Pele's teammate, scored two goals against Soviet team, and Brazil beat the USSR with a score of 2:0.
The most interesting facts and legends about Pele
On July 16, 1950, at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian national team lost to the Uruguayans in the World Cup final with a score of 2:1. When the Uruguayans celebrated their second (and last) championship, in the small town of Tres Corações, a 10-year-old boy cried bitterly in front of the radio. The boy had a long name - Edson Arantis do Nascimento - and a lifelong dream: to become a football player and make his country's national team a world champion. He realized his dream 8 years later, but under a shorter name, under which the whole world recognized the boy - Pele.
Is it natural to be a versatile footballer?
Already at the championship in Sweden, where the Brazilians became world champions for the first time, 17-year-old Pele showed his best qualities - delicate work with the ball, a sense of passing and amazing vision of the field.
Later, scientists studied all the parameters of the “King of Football” and came to the conclusion that he had natural talent. For example, Pele is considered to have a wider field of vision, hence what footballers call “field vision.” His height of 173 centimeters and his squat figure allowed him to become an excellent “techie” who knew how to make a fool of his opponent with one movement. And a large thigh girth is a trump card, giving power to the blow.
However, Pele also trained a lot. He himself said that even as a child he worked on the main, in his opinion, quality of a football player - high-speed dribbling. And he grew into a player about whom they still say that he could do everything. Arapua, a Brazilian humorist from the 1960s, said: “To neutralize Pele, you need three defenders: one tries to take the ball, another protects the first one, and the third goes to get the ball out of the net.”
Greatest goal...
Unfortunately, there are not many videos of Pele's games - the heyday of his career did not coincide with the heyday of television in Brazil. It is especially a pity that we will never see what happened in 1961 at the Maracanã and how exactly the goal called the “goal of the century” was scored (however, many consider Maradona’s goal for England to be the best goal of the century). We can judge what happened only with the help of computer reconstruction made from the recollections of eyewitnesses.
...and the biggest mistake
In a match against the same Uruguayans at Pele’s last World Cup in 1970, the “King of Football” did the impossible: he made a brilliant mistake. After Tostao's pass, Pele beat the opposing goalkeeper without touching the ball (!), walked out onto an empty goal and sent the ball past the far corner from about ten meters away. It seems that he didn’t hit it, but football fans, remembering this trick, still exhale in amazement: “Fantastic!”
By the way, at the same championship in Mexico with the participation of Pele, one of the greatest goalkeeper saves in the history of football took place. The shot seemed impossible to take: Pele headed it almost from the goal line, and the ball bounced off the lawn right in front of the goal line. But Banks saved the British.
“At that moment I hated him,” the King of Football later recalled with a smile.
Enlightener and peacemaker
Football in Brazil is more than a game. This is love, religion, national idea, in general - life. Therefore, Pele's popularity during his time as a player was incredible. When Santos, for whom he played, negotiated commercial international friendly matches, the contract stated in black and white that if Pele did not play, Santos' fee would automatically be halved.
Pele could do everything on the field, but he always considered high-speed dribbling to be the main quality of a football player.
Moreover, the three-time world champion considers the medal of the Brazilian Ministry of Education to be one of the main awards in his life. He received it because after the release of the King’s memoirs “I am Pele”, many illiterate Brazilians began to learn to read.
And in 1970, the football player caused thousands of rallies in Brazil. Fans took to the streets, outraged that national team coach Mario Zagallo left Pele, with whom he won the championship in 1958, outside the national team. The reason for this decision was that Pele had gained excess weight and was generally somewhat out of shape. Under pressure from fans, Zagallo changed his decision - and he was not mistaken. In Mexico, Pele held a stunning championship, the natural result of which was that the Brazilians became world champions for the third time. Pele, by the way, is the only one who won this title three times as a player (in addition, he is also the youngest world champion). True, in 1962, due to injury, he missed part of the World Cup.
Another story that characterizes Pele as a national idol. It was in Colombia, where Santos played the ball with the local team. The judge mercilessly helped the hosts, the audience (mostly Colombian) endured, but only for the time being. When the referee sent Pele off the field, everything that could fly flew from the stands onto the field. Real riots began. As a result, the fans (!) kicked the referee off the field (!!). The reserve referee, having taken the reins into his own hands, first of all returned Pele to the field. By this time he had already taken a shower and rested a little.
Pele surrounded by USSR national team players.
Moreover, according to one legend, Pele once stopped the war. As legend has it, in 1970, Santos went to a friendly match in Nigeria, where another civil war was going on at that time. And especially for the sake of the game, the opponents declared a two-day truce. The story, of course, is semi-mythical, but, given the eternal hype around Pele’s personality, it is not so implausible.
Unlucky Forecaster
Pele also has another interesting feature. The “King of Football” is an extremely unlucky football forecaster. At one time, he promised that by 2000 one of the African teams would become the world champion - but to this day, none of the representatives of the “dark continent” have made it past the quarterfinals at the world championships. And before the World Cup in 2002, Pele predicted that the Brazilians would not qualify from the group, and that the national teams of France and Italy would play in the final. As a result, neither the French nor the Italians even made it to the playoffs, and the Brazilians became world champions for the fifth time in history.
The king speaks
One of the traits of Pele that is not very commonly talked about is his excessive talkativeness on the field. Extremely intelligent off the pitch, the King of Football often got into altercations with referees, opponents, and even teammates. One of the Brazilian journalists recalled that, sitting near the edge of the field, he heard Pele shouting to the midfielder of his native Santos: “Fool! Why did you run to the left flank - you don’t know how to play with your left foot?!” And another time, the King promised an opponent who had allowed himself to tackle too hard: “Next time you will rake so hard that they will carry you away on a stretcher.” However, Pele usually did not allow himself to use deliberately harsh techniques. On the contrary, I more often became a victim of rude players. Like in 1966, when the “King” was rudely cut down by a Portuguese defender in a World Cup match.
But the words Pele said in his farewell match are truly golden.
“I am happy to be with you at this greatest moment of my life.” I believe that love is the most important thing in life. If you agree with me, repeat this word after me...
The stands obediently repeated.
Interesting facts about Pelé
Pele missed his first children's football tournament - his family did not have money for boots. And in the yard Pele played with his peers with a homemade ball. And sometimes the tangerine acted as a playing tool. By the way, in his earliest childhood, Pele dreamed of becoming not a football player, but a pilot.
The football player himself does not know where the nickname “Pele” came from.
In 1958, Pele, already a Santos player, was on vacation with his parents. And I learned on the radio that he would be going to the World Cup as part of the Brazilian national team.
Pele scored his first goal for the national team at the World Cup in the match against Wales. The goal was important, and Pele was so happy about it that he kissed the soccer ball.
In 1999, the International Olympic Committee named Pele "Sportsman of the Century." In addition, he is the best player of the twentieth century according to FIFA.
Pele scored 1289 goals during his career. However, he is not considered the most successful player in the history of football. According to currently accepted statistics, Ferenc Puskás is considered more effective. He has 90 hat-tricks, 30 “pokers”, four times Pele scored five goals in a game, and once scored eight goals into the opponent’s goal. In addition, Pele is one of only two players in history to score in four World Cups (the other being German Uwe Seiler).
In 1982, Pele starred in the film Escape to Victory. Moreover, his partners on the court, in addition to other famous football players, were Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.
First goal
Pele's teammates congratulate him after scoring the winning goal. Photo: Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images.
Brazil played Wales in the quarter-finals. In the 66th minute, Pele opened the scoring and scored the only goal of the match. Brazil reached the semi-finals and Pele etched his name into the record books as the youngest player ever to score a goal in a World Cup.
Autograph signing
Photo: adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images.
Photo: PA Images via Getty Images.
Hat trick
Pele scores the first of three goals on June 24. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
On June 24, Pele scored three goals - the third, fourth and fifth, as a result, the Brazilian national team beat the French national team with a score of 5:2. French footballer Juste Fontaine, who holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup (13 goals in the 1958 World Cup), later said: “When I saw Pele play, I felt it was time for me to take a well-deserved rest.”
School, shoemaker, football
Pele was kicked out of school in the fourth grade. The teacher found him playing football during school hours. The young Brazilian and future world football star had to get a job as a shoemaker's apprentice for $2 a day.
At the age of 11, Pelé was noticed by Waldemar de Brito, one of Brazil's best players. De Brito took him under his wing and began training the boy in secret. When Pelé was 12 years old, de Brito invited him to a local youth club, Baquinho. Pele danced with joy at home when he received his first personal football kit, because finally he became a real football player like his father. “It may not seem like a big achievement to some, but for me it was one of the greatest thrills of my life.” He scored a lot for Baquinho, used both feet and his head, and put a lot of balls into the net. And gradually they began to talk about him in junior Brazilian football.
On the front pages
Pele and his teammates look through newspapers before the match against Sweden. Photo: Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images.
Pele relaxes during training. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images.
Game with the Swedes
Pele and Swedish goalkeeper Kalle Svensson in the World Cup final. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
On June 29, Brazil met host country Sweden at the championship. The hosts of the tournament scored the first goal in the fourth minute of the match, but Brazil seized the initiative and scored the ball twice into the opponents' goal.
Defeat of the Swedes
Photo: Bettmann Archive.
In the 55th minute, Pele scored a spectacular goal.
Pele number 10 with his teammates on the field after winning the World Cup. Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
In the 90th minute, Pele scored again, this time with a header. It was his second goal of the game, as Brazil won 5-2. “Then I suddenly lost consciousness in front of the gate,” Pele recalled in his autobiography, Confessions of a Lover in Life, published in 2006. “Garrincha ran up and lifted my legs so that the blood would flow to my head. When I woke up, the game was over. I was overwhelmed with emotions."
Pele celebrates Brazil's victory. Photo: Philippe Le Tellier/Paris Match via Getty Images.
Birth of a King
The greatest and most famous football player in Brazilian history. Pele revolutionized world football with his unique and creative style of play and behavior on the field, as well as his masterful handling of the ball. What he demonstrated on the field went far beyond the generally accepted style of play. Edson Arantes do Nascimento has become a global ambassador for the sport. It attracted increased attention to football in many countries and even in the USA.
In October 1940, in the poor town of Tres Coracoes in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, football player Dondinhe and his wife Celeste Nascimento gave birth to their first child. They christened him Edson Arantes de Nascimento. His parents were so poor that they couldn't even afford to buy their child a soccer ball. So his father took an old sock and stuffed it with rags, and the child ran barefoot through the streets and kicked a makeshift ball.
When Edson was six years old, his family moved to the larger city of Bauru. Bauru is a railway hub in southern Brazil. Young Pele often skipped school to practice playing football. He also tried to earn money for his first personal soccer ball. Edson shined shoes and sold roasted peanuts inside movie theaters. With his friends, he created a team called “Shoeless Ones”. They played barefoot football, football - which later became known as "pelada".
