Pelé:
Bernardo
Jose
Edson Arantes do
Nascimento, known
as Pelé was born in 1940 in Tres Coracoes, Brazil Pelé didn't receive the nickname
until school days.he was given the name because of his pronunciation of the
name of his favourit player a former Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile which
he misspoke ''pile but he didn't like the name and he got suspended from school
for punching the classmate that made fun about his name but The more he
complained the more it stuck, In his autobiagrahy, Pelé stated he had no idea
what the name means, The word has no known meaning, although it does resemble
the Irish language word 'peile' meaning football and the hebrew language
word means ''wonder.
Growing up in poverty in
Bauru, Pelé earned extra money by shining shoes at the Athletic
Club on match days. Taught to play by his Dad whose own professional football
career with Atletico Mineiro ended early due to a knee injury,Pelé could
not afford a proper football and usually played with either a sock stuffed with
newspaper, tied with a string, as a child Pelés first team was called the
''shoeless ones'' formed by himself and other boys from the same street, When
they entered a local tournament organised by the mayor of Bauru that required
footwear, and were no longer called the shoeless and were renamed Ameriquinha.
They reached the final in BAC Stadium in front of thousand of spectators and
won with Pelé ending up as the tournament top scorer.
In 1954, several member
of the Ameriquinha team. including Pelé, were invited to join the
Baquinho boy's team to be managed by former Brazilian international who played
in the 1934 World Cup in Italy. for the first time Pelé was paid to play
football. they won the 1954 Youth Championship organised by the newspapers
Diario de Bauru and the Sao Paulo Sporting Gazette with Pelé scoring 148
goals in 33 games at the age of 15 and a half.
In 1956, De Brito took Pelé
to Santos, an industrial and port city in the eastern state of Sao Paulo, to
try out for a professional Club Santos Futebol Club, while they were there de
Brito told the directors at Santos that 15-years old would be one of the
greatest football player in the world, Pelé trained with the youths for
few weeks even before his trail ended Pelé was signed to be a Santos player, he
made his debut for Santos in 1956, scoring one goal in a 7-1 friendly victory
over Corinthians.
In the start of the 1957
season Pelé was given his first
season start in the first team at the age of just 16, he became the top scorer
in the in the league. just ten month after signing his first professional
contract with Santos Futbol Club, the young teenger was called up to the Brazil
national team for the first time Pelé's first international match was a
2-1 defeat against Argentina on July 7, 1957. In that match, he scored his
first goal for Brazil, three months before his 17th birthday.
His World Cup debut was against the USSR
national football team in the first round of the 1958 FIFA World Cup, he was
the youngest player of that tournament, and at the time the youngest ever to
play in the World Cup He was only 17 at the time He scored his first World Cup
goal against Wales in quarterfinals, the only goal of the match to help Brazil
advance to semifinals, while becominf the youngest ever World Cup goalscorer at
17 years and 239 days. Against France in the semifinals, Brazil was leading 2-1
at halftime, and then Pelé scored a hat-trick becomng the youngest in
World Cup history to do so.
On June nineteenth 1958 Pelé
became the youngest player in a World Cup final match at 17 years and 249
days. He scored two goals in the final Brazil beat Sweden < 5-2, his first
goal, a lob over a defender followed by a precise volley shot, was selected as
one of the best goals in the history of the World Cup. When the match ended, he
passed out on the field and had to be attended by medical staff. He soon
recovered, and was full of tears as being congratulated by his teammates. he
finished the tournament with six goals in four matches played, tied for seconf
place, behind record- breaker Just Fontaine.
In the first match of
the 1962 World Cup against Mexico, Pelé assisted the first goal and then
scored the final goal to go up 2-0 after an amazing run past four defenders. He
injured himself while attempting a long- range shot against Czechoslovakia this
would keep him out of the rest of the tournament, and forced coach Aymore
Moreira to make his only lineup change of the tournament. The substitute
was Amarilo Tavares da Silveira, who had a good performance in the
tournament, it was however, Garrincha, who would take the leading role and
carried Brazil to their second World Cup title. after the World Cup Wealthy
European clubs offered massive fees just to sign the young player, but the
government of Brazil declared Pelé an official national '' treasure'' to
prevent him from being transferred out of the Country.
The 1966 World Cup was
remembered for its phyical play, and Pelé was one of the players
affected by such play after becoming the first player to ever score in three World
Cups, with a direct free kick against Bulgaria, he had to rest, due to
tiredness, for the match against Hungary, which Brazil lost 1-3 he then faced
portugal, and several violent tackles by a portuguese defender caused him to
leave the match and the touranament. Brazil lost the match and were eliminated
in the first round of the World Cup for the first time since 1934 FIFA World
Cup. After the tournament, Pelé declared the he did not wish to play in
the World Cup again.
Four years later in 1969
Pelé was called to the national team for the last six of team 1970
World Cup qualifying matches He first refused, but then accepted and
played, in the FIFA World Cup qualification matches where he scored six goals.
On November Nineteeth
1969, Pelé scored his 1000th goal in all competitions, This was a highly
anticipated moment in Brazil The goal was called O milesimo (The
Thousandth), the goal he scored was a penalty against Vasco da Gama, at the
Maracana Stadium.Pelé said that his most beautiful goal secondd at Rua
Javari Stadium against Sao Paulo rivals Juventus Club on August 2 1959. A
there is no video footage of the match, Pelé asked that a computer
animation be made of this specific goal.In March 1961 Pelé scored the ( gol
de place (goal worth of a plaque), a goal against Fluminense
Football Club at the Maracana, Which was regarded as so spectacular that a
plaque was commissioned with a dedication to the most beautiful goal in the
history of the Maracana.
In 1967, the two
Factions involved in the Nigerian Civil War agreed to a 48- hour ceasefire so
they could watch Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos, A year later
Santos Futebol Clube were playing against Cruzeiro Esporte Clube and Pelé broke
the leg of one of the greatest player to ever played for Cruzeiro. His name was
Procopio.
The 1970 World Cup in
Mexico was to be Pelés last. Brazil's squad for the tournament featured
major player's in relation to the 1966 squad. Players like Garrincha,
Nilton, Djalma, Gilmar had already retired, but the team, with Pelé,
Rivelino, Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, and Clodoaldo,is widely considered
one of the greatest football team ever. Brazil played Italy in the final, with
Pelé scoring the opener on a header over defender, he then made assists on
Jairzinho's and Carlos Alberto's goals, Brazil won the match 4-1, Burgnich, who
marked Pelé during
the match, later Interviewed saying ''I told myself before the game, he's made
of skin and bone just like everyone else - but i was wrong'', Pelé's last
international match was on 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 went on to win three World Cup. Brazil never lost a
match with both Pelé and Garrincha on the field.
After the 1972 season
(his 17th season with santos), Pelé retired from Brazilian club football
During his time at santos, Pelé played alongside many gifted players,
including Zito, Pepe and Coutinho they later partnered him in
numerous one-two plays, attacks, and goals. Two years later, he signed with the
New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League for the 1975 season. Though
then past his prime, Pelé led the Cosmos to the 1977 NASL Championship,
in his third and final season with the Club,
On October first, 1977,
Pelé closed out his legendary career in an exhibition match between the Cosmos
and Santos. Santos arrived in New York and New Jersey after previously
defeating the Seattle Sounders 2-0. The match was played in front of a capacity
crowd at Giants Stadium and was televised in the United States on ABC as well as throughout the world. Pelés
father and wife both attended the match. Pelé gave a brief pre-match
speech during which he asked the crowd to say the word ''love'' with him three
times. Pelé played the first half for the Cosmos and the second half for
Santos. Reynaldo scored the first goal for Santos. and then Pelé scored
his final goal from a direct free kick, driving the ball past the diving Santos
goalkeeper.
At halftime, the Cosmos
retired Pele's number 10. Pele presented his Cosmos shirt to his father, who
was escorted to the field by Cosmos captain Werner Roth, Cosmos won the
match 2-1. After the match, Pele 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. Pele was soon lifted by several Cosmos players and carried around the
field.The number of league goals scored by Pelé is listed as 589 in 605
games.This number is the ammount of the goals scored by Pelé in the
league, In December 2000, Pelé was named Footballer of the Century
by FIFA.