Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player ever to do so. At club level he is Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals from 656 games. In 1999, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.

About Pelé in brief

Summary Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his international career, he won three FIFA World Cups: 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player ever to do so. At club level he is Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals from 656 games. In 1999, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics. In 2010, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos. In Brazil, he is hailed as a national hero for his accomplishments in football and for his outspoken support of policies that improve the social conditions of the poor. He was named after the American inventor Thomas Edison, but there was a mistake on the birth certificate, leading many documents to show his name as \”Edison\”, not \”Edson\”, as he is called. Pelé is the most successful top division scorer in the sport with 541 goals in 560 games. His total of 1279 goals in 1363 games, which included friendlies, is also a Guinness World Record. He earned extra money as a servant to play by his father, who could not afford a proper football and played with a sock stuffed with a newspaper and a string of grapefruit. In his autobiography, he stated he had no idea what the name means, nor did his old friends. He received the nickname during 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.

He has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has made many acting and commercial ventures, including a role in the film The Godfather: Particulars, a biopic about the life of Pelé. He is also the honorary president of the Brazilian Football Association (CBF) and the Brazilian Institute of Sport (BIS). He has also been a director of the Rio de Janeiro-based Brazilian Football Club (RSC) since his retirement in 1977, and has been involved in the construction of the Olympic Stadium in Rio. He won the World Cup with Brazil in 1958, and the Copa Libertadores with Santos in 1962 and 1963. He played for several amateur teams in his youth, including Sete de Sete, Canto do Rio, São Paulinho, and Amriquinha. He led Bauru Athletic Club juniors to two youth state championships in São Paulo state. He also played for an indoor football team called Radium Indoor Football Club in his mid-teens, and was part of the first futsal team in the state of Sete. His nickname is ‘Pelé’, which means’miracle’ in Portuguese, but the word has no known meaning in Portuguese. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two children.