Pelé

Edison Arantes do Nascimento was born in Brazil, on the 23rd of October 1940,He was best known by his nickname Pelé, he is a Brazilian football player. He was given the title "Athlete of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee. In 1999 Time Magazine named Pelé one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.[8] While his birth certificate shows his first name as Edison, he prefers to call himself Edson, but it is as Pelé that he has become a sporting legend.

In his native Brazil, Pelé is hailed as a national hero. He is known for his accomplishments and contributions to the game of football in addition to being officially declared football ambassador of the world by FIFA and a national treasure by the Brazilian government. He is also acknowledged for his vocal support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor (when he scored his 1,000th goal he dedicated it to the poor children of Brazil).During his career, he became known as "The King of Football" (O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (O Rei Pelé) or simply "The King" (O Rei). He is also a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.Spotted by football star Waldemar de Brito,Pelé began playing for Santos at 15 and his national team at 16, and won his first World Cup at 17. Despite numerous offers from European clubs, the economic conditions and Brazilian football regulations at the time benefited Santos, thus enabling them to keep Pelé for almost two decades until 1974. Pelé played as an inside forward, striker, and what later became known as the playmaker position. Pelé's technique and natural athleticism have been universally praised and during his playing years he was renowned for his excellent dribbling and passing, his pace, powerful shot, exceptional heading ability, and prolific goalscoring.

He is the all-time leading scorer of the Brazil national football team and is the only footballer to be a part of three World Cup-winning teams. In 1962 he was on the Brazilian squad at the start of the World Cup but due to an injury suffered in the second match, he wasn't able to play the remainder of the tournament. In November 2007 FIFA announced that he would be awarded the 1962 medal retroactively, making him the only player in the world to have three World Cup winning medals.Since his retirement in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has undertaken various acting roles and commercial ventures.


Personal information

Full name Edison Arantes do Nascimento
Date of birth 23 October 1940 (1940-10-23) (age 68)
Place of birth Três Corações, Brazil
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position Forward

Youth career
1952–1956 Bauru AC

Senior career*
Years Club Apps (Gls)
1956–1974 Santos 438 (474)
1975–1977 New York Cosmos 064 0(37)

National team
1957–1971 Brazil 092 0(77)

Early years

He was born in Três Corações, Brazil, the son of a Fluminense footballer Dondinho (born João Ramos do Nascimento) and Maria

Celeste Arantes. He was named after the American inventor Thomas Edison, however his parents decided to remove the 'i' and call him 'Edson'. But there was a mistake on the birth certificate, leading many documents to show his name as 'Edison', not 'Edson', as he is actually called. He was originally nicknamed Dico by his family.He did not receive the nickname "Pelé" until his school days, when it is claimed he was given it 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. In his autobiography, Pelé stated he had no idea what the name means, nor did his old friends. Apart from the assertion that the name is derived from that of Bilé, the word has no known meaning, although it is the name of a Hawaiian volcano goddess and it does resemble the Irish language word peil, meaning football.Growing up in poverty in Bauru, São Paulo, Pelé earned extra money by working in tea shops as a servant. Taught to play by his coach, he could not afford a proper football and usually played with either a sock stuffed with newspaper, tied with a string or a grapefruit.[16] In an interview with British magazine Loaded, Pele revealed that his father caught him smoking at a young age. His father advised, "Listen, if you want to play sport, you have to be in good health.

In 1954, several members of the Ameriquinha team, including Pelé, were invited to join the Baquinho boys' team to be managed by former Brazilian international Waldemar de Brito, who played in the 1934 World Cup in Italy.
At the age of 15 and a half, he joined the Santos FC junior team. He played for one season before joining the senior team.

Honours

Club

* Santos (Official Tournaments)
o Campeonato Paulista: 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1973
o Torneio Rio-São Paulo: 1959, 1963 and 1964
o Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa (Taça de Prata): 1968
o Taça Brasil: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965
o Copa Libertadores: 1962 and 1963
o Intercontinental Cup: 1962 and 1963
o South-American Recopa: 1968
o Intercontinental Recopa: 1968
* New York Cosmos
o NASL Champions: 1977

Country

* Brazil
o FIFA World Cup:
+ Winner (3): 1958, 1962, 1970
+ Appearances (4): 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970
o Roca Cup:
+ Winner (2): 1957, 1963

The tally of 31 team trophies makes him, together with the Portuguese Vítor Baía, the player with most career titles.
Individual

* Santos
o Campeonato Paulista top scorer (11): 1957-1965, 1969, 1973.

* Golden Ball (Best Player):
o Winner (1): 1970

* Athlete of the Century, elected by world wide journalists, poll by French daily L'Equipe: 1981

* Athlete of the Century, elected by International Olympic Committee: 1999

* Athlete of the Century, by Reuters News Agency: 1999

* UNICEF Football Player of the Century: 1999

* FIFA Player of the Century : 2000

In December 2000, Pelé and Maradona shared the prize of FIFA Player of the Century by FIFA. The award was originally intended to be based upon votes in a web poll, but after it became apparent that it favoured Diego Maradona, many observers complained that the Internet nature of the poll would have meant a skewed demographic of younger fans who would have seen Maradona play, but not Pelé. FIFA then appointed a "Family of Football" committee of FIFA members to decide the winner of the award. The committee chose Pelé. Since Maradona was winning the Internet poll, however, it was decided he and Pelé should share the

award.

* 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 Statistics:

1999

* Laureus World Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award from South African President Nelson Mandela: 2000

A consensus of media and expert polls rank Pelé as the greatest footballer of all time.

* BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality:
o Winner (1): 1970

* BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award:
o Winner (1): 2005

Career statistics

Goalscoring and appearance record

Pelé's goalscoring record is often reported as being 1280 goals in 1363 games. This figure includes goals scored by Pelé in non-competitive club matches, for example, international tours Pelé completed with Santos and the New York Cosmos, and games
Pelé played in for armed forces teams during his national service in Brazil.
The tables below record every goal Pelé scored in major club competitions for Santos and the New York Cosmos. During much of Pelé's playing career in Brazil there was no national league championship. From 1960 onwards the Brazilian Football
Confederation (CBF) were required to provide meritocratic entrants for the then-new Copa Libertadores, a South American international club competition broadly equivalent to the European Cup. To enable them to do this, the CBF organised two
national competitions: the Taça de Prata and Taça Brasil. A national league championship, the Campeonato Brasileiro, was first played in 1971, alongside traditional state and interstate competitions such as the Campeonato Paulista and the Torneio Rio-São Paulo.

The number of league goals scored by Pelé is listed as 589 in 605 games. This number is the sum of the goals scored by Pelé in domestic league-based competitions: the Campeonato Paulista (SPS), Torneio Rio-São Paulo (RSPS), Taça de Prata and
Campeonato Brasileiro. The Taça Brasil was a national competition organised on a knockout basis.


Some historical perspective:
# Pele's 1281 goals are recognized by FIFA as the highest total achieved by a professional footballer. All of these goals have been checked by more than one recognized statistic institution. Pele played between 1957 and 1973 not just in official championships but also in short term International Tournaments between European and South American teams – a very common event in 1960s. However some critics claim that the goals scored in those tournaments should not count because they consider the short term tournaments to be "friendlies".

# Pelé is in third place on the list of all-time top goalscorers in international matches between National Teams; in 92 appearances for the Brazil national football team, he scored 77 goals. He is in fourth place behind Ronaldo, Gerd Müller, and Just Fontaine on the list of goalscorers in World Cup matches, with 12 goals. He has been part of three World Cup-winning teams, although he did not play in the 1962 final due to injury and did not receive a medal. He is one of only two players to
have scored in four World Cups (the other being Uwe Seeler, who did it in the same four tournaments). Pelé is one of only four footballers to have achieved the feat of scoring in two different World Cup final matches, sharing that honor with Paul
Breitner, Vavá, and Zinedine Zidane. He is one of five players to have scored twice from direct free kicks in World Cups (The others are Rivelino, Teófilo Cubillas, Bernard Genghini, and David Beckham).

# Due to the sheer size of Brazil and the problems and costs related to air travel at the time, until 1959 there was nothing that could be called a National Football Tournament between the best teams from across the whole of Brazil. Generally the Brazilian football season was occupied first by state championships (between teams of the same state), followed by the Torneio Rio-São Paulo, a competition between the teams from the two strongest states in the country, São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro. And last but not least, from 1959, by the national team competition. This league system provided all the players (i.e., no foreign-based players) for the 1958, 1962 and 1970 Brazil World Cup Champions.

# Given the global economic conditions and the football regulations at the time (especially in Brazil) the only players who left the Brazilian leagues for the European ones were usually those who could not get a regular place in one of the top teams or who were at the end of their careers. Sometimes a great player who was eclipsed by a more talented footballer in his position, in an era when substitutions during the matches were not allowed, made this change. Current regulations restricting players from playing in the World Cup for more than one country were not yet introduced. For this reason, some argue that Brazil had the world's strongest league during the years of Pelé's career. It must be added that contrary to most European national championships – which had only two or three leading teams – there were 11 direct competitors for the national cup: Santos, Botafogo, Palmeiras, Flamengo, Corinthians, São Paulo FC, Vasco, Fluminense, Bahia, Cruzeiro and Atlético. Despite this, Santos won it five times in a row.

# At that time the Santos team spent a third or sometimes almost half of the year in the São Paulo State League, even when running for the South American Teams Cup or other international tournaments. Before Pelé's era the cup of the São Paulo
League was monopolized by the so-called "Iron Trio", the three most prestigious teams of São Paulo city, the capital of São Paulo: Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo FC.

# Some of the best players were spread among teams all across Brazil, for example Didi, Garrincha, Zagallo and Jairzinho played in the Rio de Janeiro League, Tostão, Piazza and Dario played in the Minas Gerais League and Figueroa in the Rio
Grande do Sul League. In the São Paulo league while Footballers like Carlos Alberto, Zito, Pepe and Gilmar ( this one from the 1960s ) played with Pelé for Santos; there were however many others playing for Santos' rivals like Rivelino, Dino Sani,
Luizinho and later Garrincha by Corinthians; Gérson, Pedro Rocha and Pablo Forlán by São Paulo FC; Félix, Djalma Santos and Zé Maria by Portuguesa and Leão, Luís Pereira, Leivinha, Julinho, Vavá and Ademir da Guia by Palmeiras just to mention a few.
All of these great teams and players played against Pelé between 1957 and 1974