For football fans all over the world, Pele is a familiar name. Although he has retired for a long time, the “king of football” has contributed to making the sport.
It is undeniable that Pele is a legend in the history of world football. Although he no longer plays in football tournaments, Pele is still considered as the best player of all time. He has always been a role model of all young players all over the world.
Pele is even called “The King of Football” for his talent and contribution. Young people today can no longer see his football on the pitch, but through YouTube channels or archived videos, or news from football channels, such as https://tructiepbongda.mobi. You can no longer doubt his exceptional talent. Read on to know more.
Childhood of Pele
Pele’s real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. He was born on October 23rd, 1949 in a family of football tradition. His father is also a football player: Fluminense Dondinho. From a very young age, he showed the outstanding characteristics and talents of a leader. At the age of 10, Pele set up his football team to compete with other street players. The name Pele appeared this time, the street children also called him Pele.
Pele had to experience many hardships during his childhood. He used to work as a shop assistant, must use newspaper-filled socks or even grapefruit balls to make the ball to play. Pele participated in some amateur leagues and won many local victories. After that, his talent was discovered by coach Santos Lula, which helped him start his career with Santos FC in 1956.
Played for Santos FC
In 1956, Pele started playing at Santos Football Club at the age of 15 and signed a professional contract with the club in June 1956. Pele was advertised in local media as a future superstar. Pele made his debut on September 7th, 1956 with Corinthians Santo Andre and had an impressive performance with a final score of 7-1. That was the time he scored his first goal in his football career.
In the 1957 season, Pele became the top scorer in the tournament at the age of 16. Ten months after signing a professional contract, Pele was called up to the Brazilian national team. After the 1962 World Cup, wealthy European clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus, and Manchester United tried to sign a contract with him, but the Brazilian government declared that Pele was the “treasure” of the country and did not allow him to transfer from Brazil.
Pele won his first title with Santos in 1958 when the team won Campeonato Paulista. Finishing the tournament, Pele was the top scorer with 58 goals. One year later, he helped the team win at Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo with a score of 3-0 against Vasco da Gama. However, Santos could not retain the title Paulista.
In the 1960 season, Pele scored 47 goals and helped Santos to continue to win the Campeonato Paulista. The club beat Taca Brazil that same year, and won Bahia in the final round. Santos’s most successful Copa Libertadores season began in 1962. The team defeated Universidad Catolica in the semi-finals and met defending champion Penarol in the final. Pele scored twice in the playoff match and won the first Copa Libertadores title for a Brazilian club.
Pele became the second scorer of the tournament with 4 goals. In the same year, Santos succeeded in defending Campeonato Brasileiro (with 37 goals from Pele) and Taca Brasil (Pele scored 4 goals in the final matches against Botafogo). Santos also won the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 after winning Benfica. Wearing the number 10 shirt, Pele had one of the best performances of his career, scoring a hat-trick in Lisbon with the final score of 5-2.
On October 1st, Pele decided to end his football career in a match between Cosmos and Santos.
In Brazil National Football team
The first international match was a 2-1 loss to Argentina on July 7th, 1957 in Maracana. In that match, he scored his first goal for Brazil National team when he was 16 years old. He became the youngest player to score in international football matches. At the age of 17, Pele cried on goalkeeper Gilmar’s shoulders after Brazil won the 1958 World Cup.
On June 29th, 1958, Pele became the youngest player to play in the World Cup final. He scored two goals in that final when Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 in Stockholm. In the 1962 World Cup, Pele was the best player in the world at that time. In the first match of the 1962 World Cup in Chile, Pele assisted in the first goal and then scored the second goal, after passing four defenders to increase the score to 2-0.
He was injured in the next match. This injury forced Pele to leave the match for the rest of the tournament. As a result, coach Aymore Moreira had to make the only change throughout the tournament. Pele’s replacement, Amarildo, performed well in the remaining games of the tournament. However, it was Garrincha who lead the team and brought Brazil to their second World Cup title, after beating Czechoslovakia in the final round in Santiago.
Pele’s last international match took place on July 18th, 1971 against Yugoslavia in Rio de Janeiro.
Pele’s health
In 1977, Brazilian media reported that Pele had a right kidney transplant. In November 2012, Pele underwent a successful hip operation. After that, Pele appeared in a wheelchair at the 2018 World Cup draw in Mokva, where he took photos with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Diego Maradona.
A month later, he collapsed from exhaustion and was taken to the hospital. In 2019, Pele got admitted to the hospital for a urinary tract infection. In February 2020, his son, Edinho, announced that Pele could not walk on his own and did not want to leave his house. In an interview with the Globo Esporte TV channel, Edinho said that his father fell into a severe depression because he could not walk and rarely appeared at big events.
His health is weak as he had to change his hip joints and could not recover as expected.
After many years, Pele is still considered the best player of all time. In 1999, he was voted as the Best Player of the 20th century by the IFFHS Association. In the same year, he was voted as the Athlete of the Century by the IOC and was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Brazilian people are always proud of having such an excellent player as Pele.