Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, is a retired Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. He is widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century award. That same year, Pelé was elected Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee. According to the IFFHS, Pelé is the most successful domestic league goal-scorer in football history scoring 650 goals in 694 League matches, and in total 1281 goals in 1363 games, which included friendlies and official competitions. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world.
In his native Brazil, Pelé is hailed as a national hero. He is known for his accomplishments and contributions to the game of football. He is also acknowledged for his outspoken support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor.
In 1961, Pelé became the youngest player ever to score a goal in the FIFA World Cup, aged 17. In 1970, he scored his 1000th professional goal. He was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team three times and is the only player to be a member of three World Cup-winning squads.
Table of Contents:
1. Early Life
2. The Making of a Legend
3. The World Cup
4. More World Cup Success:
5. The “King of Football”
6. Retirement
7. Personal Life
8. Top Pele Quotes
Early Life:
Pelé was born on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil. His parents, Dondinho and Celeste, were both poor but hardworking. Dondinho was a footballer himself, and he instilled his love of the game in his son from an early age.
The Making of a Legend:
Pelé began his professional career with the Brazilian club Santos at the age of 15. He quickly became a sensation, leading the team to victory in the Campeonato Paulista (the top football league in the state of São Paulo) in 1958, 1959, and 1960.
The World Cup:
PelĂ©’s breakout performance came at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. He was just 17 years old, but he scored six goals in the tournament, including two in the final, as Brazil defeated Sweden 5-2 to claim their first ever World Cup title.
More World Cup Success:
PelĂ© continued his domination of the World Cup in 1962 and 1970. He scored four goals in Brazil’s victory over Czechoslovakia in the 1962 final, and added another two in their win over Italy in 1970. He is the only player to have won three World Cup titles.
The “King of Football”:
PelĂ©’s outstanding performances on the pitch earned him the nicknames “The King of Football” and “The Black Pearl.” He was an international superstar, and his face was known around the world.
Retirement:
Pelé retired from football in 1977, but he remained an active and popular figure in the game. He worked as a commentator and ambassador for football, and he was inducted into the FIFA World Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
Personal Life:
PelĂ© has been married three times and has fathered three children. His first marriage, to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, ended in divorce. His second marriage, to AssĂria Lemos Seixas, lasted from 1966 to 1982 and produced two sons, Edson and Joshua. His third marriage, to psychologist and writer PilĂŁo, lasted from 1986 to 1996 and produced a daughter, Celeste.
Top Pele Quotes:
“If you ever want to be a decent player, you have to be able to use both feet without stopping to think about it.”- Pele.
“Brazil eats, sleeps, and drinks football. It lives football!”- Pele.
“I always think that I would have become an actor if I hadn’t been a soccer player.”- Pele.
“Great teams are not made up of many well-rounded players.”- Pele.
“A team is not made up of isolated individuals… Football is a team game. No one plays alone. Success depends on your whole team being a single unit.”- Pele.
“Everything is practice.”- Pele.
“I want to do my best to make the people happy. I play with my heart for the sport.”- Pele.
“Always when I come to the field, I try to do my best for other people.”- Pele.
“When I was playing, they said soccer was a man’s world and women should remain on the sidelines, all I can say is I’m glad I never had to go up against Mia Hamm.”- Pele.
“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint.”- Pele.
“I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘born’ soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents.”- Pele.
“When you control the ball you control the score.”- Pele.
“Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.”- Pele.
“The first World Cup I remember was in 1950 when I was 9 or 10 years old. My father was a soccer player, and there was a big party, and when Brazil lost to Uruguay, I saw my father crying.”- Pele.
“How much soccer training is needed to become a top player? It depends on the efficiency of your training routine.”- Pele.
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”- Pele.
“Considerable research on successful soccer players and their developmental history, affirms that a good percentage of them have spent time in isolation, working on soccer skills.”- Pele.
“A lot of people, when a guy scores a lot of goals, think, ‘He’s a great player’ because a goal is very important, but a great player is a player who can do everything on the field.”- Pele.
“Everything on earth is a game. A passing thing. We all end up dead. We all end up the same, don’t we?”- Pele.
“No doubt, I am earning more money with my endorsements than I ever earned playing soccer.”- Pele.
“A penalty is a cowardly way to score.”- Pele.
“Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.”- Pele.
“A good player is not who only scores goals but someone who can cheer his team and when the team is not performing well, he can act as a leader.”- Pele.
“I don’t think I’m a very good businessman. I act too much with my heart.”- Pele.
“I love people. I wanted to be with the people. I wanted to give something back what I get from football because God gave everything to me.”- Pele.
“No individual can win a game by himself.”- Pele.
“When football stars disappear, so do the teams, and that is a very curious phenomenon. It is like in the theatre, in a play, where there is a great star.”- Pele.
“Too many players think of a football as something to kick. They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.”- Pele.
“You must respect people and work hard to be in shape. And I used to train very hard. When the other players went to the beach after training, I was there kicking the ball.”- Pele.
“Sometimes I look for the complete player, not just the players who score but those who can pass.”- Pele.
“The head talks to the heart and the heart talks to the feet.”- Pele.
“I’ve come to accept that the life of a frontrunner is a hard one, that he will suffer more injuries than most men, and that many of these injuries will not be accidental.”- Pele.
“I think the kids always look forward to being always the big stars. Not only football, any profession.”- Pele.
“There is always someone out there getting better than you by training harder than you.”- Pele.
“His left foot is fantastic. It’s like Mozart. God gave Freddy the gift to play soccer. If he is prepared mentally and physically, nobody will stop him.”- Pele.
“Football is like a religion to me.”- Pele.
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”- Pele.
“Love is more important than what we can take… Please say with me three times – Love! Love! Love!”- Pele.
“People always ask me: ‘When is the new Pele going to be born?’ Never. My father and mother have closed the factory.”- Pele.
“Football is the best, is the biggest sport in the world.”- Pele.
“I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, ‘Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.”- Pele.
“Another reason why I am always close to the people, because communication is very important. When I stopped to play soccer I continued to… work with UNICEF.”- Pele.
“I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god.”- Pele.
“I was barely 14 years old. But let’s be fair, I wasn’t the only one who did it.”- Pele.
“Great teams are made up of a variety of players, each having their own strengths.”- Pele.
“I played futsal growing up in Baurd. In futsal, you need to think quick and play quick so it’s easier for you when you move to normal football.”- Pele.
“When you play against dirty players or very tough players, it’s easy to escape because you know what they’re going to do. But when the player is tough but intelligent, it’s much more difficult.”- Pele.
“If you don’t give education to people, it is easy to manipulate them.”- Pele.
“If I pass away one day, I am happy because I tried to do my best. My sport allowed me to do so much because it’s the biggest sport in the world.”- Pele.
“Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pele, and Coca-Cola.”- Pele.
“He was a man in Bauru that all our team visited.”- Pele.
“Success isn’t determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose.”- Pele.
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